THE ATTITUDES OF JAMAICAN PARENTS
TOWARDS PARENT INVOLVEMENT TN HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION
By
Sonia M. Murphy
A Research Paper
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of theRequirements for the
Master of Science DegreeWith a Major in
Home Economics
Approved: (2) Semester Credits
Investif tion Adv;isor
The Graduate SchoolUniversity of Wisconsin-Stout
May, 2002
The Graduate CollegeUniversity of Wisconsin - StoutMenomonie, Wisconsin 24751
ABSTRACT
Murphy Sonia M.(Writer) (Last Name) (First) (Initial)
Attitudes of Jamaican Parents Towards Parent Involvement With Their Child's
Education at High School
Home Economics Dr. Karen Zimmerman May, 2002 114(Graduate Major) (Research Advisor) (Month/Year) (Pages)
American Psychological Association (5th Version)(Name of Style Manual Used in this Study)
This study examined the attitudes of Jamaican parents towards parent
involvement at high school. The objectives were to: 1) Determine the attitudes of parents
toward involvement and the high school their child attends, 2) Determine what schools
are presently doing to involve parents and how parents think schools can improve, 3)
Determine parental involvement at home, at school and in the community, and the
amount of time parents spend helping their high school child with homework, and 4)
Examine the differences in parent attitudes, parent involvement, and parent assistance
with homework based on parental educational level.
The subj ects in this study were parents with children in selected high schools in
St. Catherine, Jamaica. Parents were asked to volunteer as participants in the study. The
survey instrument was revised based upon the results of the pilot study, and administered
in the fall 2001. The survey instrument consisted of five parts: demographic information,
attitudes, school involvement, how parents were involved in the education of their child
at home, at school and in the community, time spent helping with homework, subjects
and topics parents would like to learn more about so that they can help their child, and
parent concerns.
Two hundred and twenty parents responded to the survey. Data was analyzed
based on frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation.
The study found that parents agreed or strongly agreed to 45% of the attitude
statements (nine statements). Parents felt that schools did well or could do better at over
58% of the involvement practices. Over 50% of parents in all instances felt that the
school did not do well at asking them to volunteer, did not explain how they should check
homework, did not include them in vital decisions for school improvement and did not
provide information on community services that help children and families. Fifty-seven
percent of parents said the school did not contact them if their child did something well or
improved at school.
When parents were asked to indicate the areas where schools need to improve
more than 50% would like to see improvement in attendance at P.T.A. meetings, parent
volunteering, parent communication with teachers, the amount of guidance given to
parents by teachers, time available for parents to talk to teachers and principals and the
school's effort to contact them when their child is doing well or needs extra help. The
study also found that more parents were involved in the education of their children at
home than at school or in the community. Over 80.6% of parents said they talked to their
children about school many times 88.8% talked to children about how important school
is, 82.4% talked with children about the future, career and work. Regarding homework,
60.5% of parents said their children spent 1-2 hours doing homework on schooldays. All
parents indicated that they were willing to spend more time helping children with
homework if the teacher showed them how to help.
Parents indicated that they needed help with Mathematics (75.3%), Computer
Studies (53.3%), and English Language (49.9%). Parents also requested workshops in
how to discipline teens, how to help teens choose careers, study and take tests. They also
wanted to learn more about community services such as family counseling, job and skill
training.
The study also found that there are significant differences on parent attitude,
parent involvement, parent assistance with homework, based on parent level of education.
Findings of this study can be of great benefit to all stakeholders in education in
Jamaica. The results will therefore be made available in ·the Education Offices in the
Ministry of Education, school principals and teachers as a first step. It is recommended
that school begin to view parent involvement as a major component in their three-year
development plans and begin to formulate action teams for planning and implementing
activities to improve parental involvement at high school.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to Dr. Karen Zimmerman for the
invaluable time, patience and direction she gave me in my pursuit of this study. Thank
you for helping me to realize this goal.
I would especially like to express my thanks to the University of Wisconsin-Stout
for granting financial assistance to support the completion of this project Without this
help I would be unable to conduct the survey that makes this project more meaningful
and applicable to my work environment.
Special thanks are also due to the many teachers of Home Economics, in high
schools in St. Catherine Jamaica, who issued the surveys to students, who took them
home to their parents and returned them to their teachers after they were completed.
Thanks to all the parents who kindly consented to participate in this effort and took time
out of their busy schedule to complete and returned the surveys on time.
I would further like to thank my daughter Carese Murphy for taking time off from
work to issue and collect the surveys from teachers and for returning them so that this
study could be timely completed. Without her help, encouragement and effort this study
would not have been possible.
vi
Table of Contents
Page
Acknowledgements v
List of Tables viii
List of Figures x
Chapter One: Introduction 1Introduction 1
Benefits to Parents 4Benefits to Schools 8Parent Involvement Program in High Schools 11Jamaican High Schools 11
Statement of Problem 12Research Objectives 13Definition of Terms 13Assumptions 14Limitations 15
Chapter Two: Review of Literature 16Review of Literature 16Introduction 16High School Education in Jamaica 18Models of Parent Involvement 23Attitudes Towards Parent Involvement 39
Parents Attitude 40Teachers Attitude 42Attitude of School Administrators 46
Community Benefits 47Aspirations and Expectations of Jamaican Parents 48Summary 50
Chapter Three: Methodology 53Introduction 53Selection of Subjects 53Instrumentation 53Validity 55Data Collection 55Pilot Study 56Method of Analysis 56Limitations 57
vii
References (continued)
Page
Chapter Four: Results and Discussion 58Background Information 58Results 58Demographic Characteristics 59Discussion 87
Chapter Five: Summary, Findings and Conclusions 94Overview 94Statement of the Problem 94Conclusion 103Educational Implications 104Recommendations for Future Research 105
References 106
Appendix: Survey Instrument 110
viii
List of Tables
Page
Table
1: Participating schools and survey rate 59
2: Respondents 60
3: Number of children 61
4: Grade levels of children 61
5:. Age category of respondents 62
6: Classes in parenting 62
7: Education level of parents 63
8: Attitudes statements 64
9: How schools involved parents 66
10: Improvements parents would like to see at school 68
11: Parent involvement at home 69
12: Parent involvement at school 70
13: Parent involvement in the community 70
14: Child time spent on homework on school days 71
15: Parents time spent on homework 71
16: Time parents could spend if teacher showed them how to help 72
17: Parents who can help on weekends 73
18: Child performance at high school 73
19: How often child completes homework 74
20: Subj ects that parents would like to learn about 75
List of Tables (continued)
Page
Table
21: Parents' workshop interests 76
22: Community services parents would like to learn more about 77
23: Parents concerns about what is happening at school 78
24: Things parents want schools to do to help them with their child 80
25: How parents help the school 82
26: Significant differences between parent's attitudes, parent 85involvement, parents assistance with homework and parents levelsof education
List of Figures
Figure
1: Parent Into Schools 28
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
The issue of parent involvement continues to be of interest to researchers,
educators, and school administrators. Professionals in various disciplines with interest in
children, families, schools and communities are doing studies to determine the effects of
partnerships on the educational development of children (Turbiville, Umberger &
Guthrie, 2000; Pelco, Rover, Jacobson & Melka, 2000; Bauch & Goldring, 2000;
Ramirez, 2001). Parent involvement has also become the focus of attention among many
who must make policies regarding school family and society, but what is parent
involvement really? Parent involvement is the practice of any activity that empowers
parents or families to participate in the educational process at home, at school or in any
other program setting (Rockwell, Andre & Hawley, i995).
The definition of parent involvement has gone through many changes both in
name and focus over the years, however each is based upon a philosophy of child- adult
and adult- adult interactions that assigns roles to both the parent and the educator. It is
therefore a general consensus that regardless of the term used to describe this process the
end result is that parent involvement allows for the working of parents, educators and
other individuals together in promoting the best educational interest of the child.
The concept of parent involvement is no longer a new one. Over the past decades
it has gone through transition from parents helping children with education at home to a
partnership between school (teacher) and home (parent) to emerge as the collaborative
effort of schools, families and conmmtnities to provide or improve the education of
children. The demand for schools to work with families and for communities to become
involved in the education of children is well recognized and accepted by all. The question'
is no longer whether there is a need for collaborating or whether schools and parents
should cooperate with each other, but, what is the most effective way of working together
and how it should be accomplished (Berger, 2000).
Early federal legislations in parent involvement in the 1960's started with the
passage of Head Start, and later Title one of the Elementary and Secondary School Act
followed by several other legislations continues to pave the way for more involvement of
parents. Federal support for promoting a "partnership that will increase parent
involvement and participation in promoting the social, emotional and academic growth of
children"(Pryor, 1995, p. 410) was obtained with the passing of PL203-277, the Goals
2000: Educate America Act (H.R. 1804) on March 31, 1994. This act allows for
continued involvement of parents. Most educators are optimistic that parents can be
successfully involved.
There is a growing concern among educators, policy makers in education, and
researchers to determine the effects of parent involvement on students' academic
performance. There is also concern about the attitudes of teachers and parents towards
involvement and what can be done to improve this school-family partnership. The
attitudes of teachers and parents are determining factors in how effective a program of
parent involvement can be. It is out of this concern that the decision was made to
investigate the attitude of Jamaican parents towards involvement in the education of their
high school children, to find out how parent involvement can benefit parents, teachers
and schools and to find answers to what strategies may be employed to improve and
strengthen the partnership between school and home, parents and teacher, at the high
school level. It is hoped that this study will add to the body of knowledge on parent
involvement and that I will be more informed on the topic so that I can influence more
parent involvement in Jamaican schools especially at the high school level where it is
most lacking.
The general feeling among advocates for parent involvement in education is that
there are numerous benefits to students, parents and teachers. A well-structured program
of parent involvement can improve the attitudes of parents, students, teachers and school
administrators towards this partnership. Gains in student's academic achievement are
among the highly ranked benefits. More positive parental involvement in education
through the school system and at home may be the strongest single factor to promote
students success (Botrie & Wagner, 1992). Several researchers have tried to determine
the effects of parent involvement on student's academic achievement (Pena, 2000;
Feuerstein, 2000; Pryor, 1995; McGrath & Kuriloff, 1999) have reported relationships
between parent involvement and students performance. Findings of a study done by US
Department of Education cited by (Turbiville, Umbarge & Guthrie, 2000) also revealed
that children whose parents were active in school activities were more likely to score A's
on assignments, participate in extra curricular activities and enjoy school. They were also
less likely to repeat grades, be expelled or suspended or exhibit violent behavior in
school. Pape (1999) in an article "Involving parents lets students and teachers win"
reported findings of a recent study by (Henderson & Berla, 1995) that found that in
programs that are designed to involve parents in full partnership, disadvantaged students'
achievement not only improves, but can reach levels that are standards for middle class
children, and that junior and senior high school students whose parents remained
involved made better transitions, maintained the quality of their work, and made realistic
plans for their future. Students whose parents are not involved are more prone to drop out
of school. Schools that work well with families have improved teacher morale and have
higher ratings of teachers by parents.
Benefits to Parents
It is important to involve parents in the education of their children. Both students
and parents can derive benefits from this process. Students learn more when parents and
teachers work together. Rockwell, Andre and Hawley (1996) state that parent
involvement in education raises the academic achievement of students, improves the
affitudes and performance of students in school, increases self esteem and motivation,
reduces behavioral problems and lowers students dropout rates, helps parents understands
the work of the school and builds school-community relationships in an on-going,
problem preventing way. Further when parents are involved they understand more about
the education process, change their behavior at home and are more supportive of their
child, and show more appreciation for teachers' efforts. By being involved parents also
feel a sense of accomplishment knowing that they have contributed to the academic
achievement of their children. Parents can help in establishing goals and directions
towards decisions concerning their children, and enjoy more power in influencing the
education process for their children.
It is unfortunate that many parents are not as involved as they should be in the
education of their children. Some educators view this as unwillingness on the part of
parents. However, researchers have found that parents feel estranged from the process of
involvement for many reasons. Findings of studies (Brown, 1989; Galinsky, 1988; Honig,
1975; Miller & McDowell, 1993 & Rich, 1987) cited in Rockwell, Andre and Hawley
(1995) have identified some family, professional and programmatic challenges to parent
involvement that educators should know.
The family challenges include lack of time, inflexible work hours, scheduling of
activities that may be jeopardized by the competing demands of home and family,
medical problems, stress related problems. Personal safety issues in some communities,
securing adequate childcare, transportation, finance, intrapersonal or interpersonal
difficulties, being overwhelmed by professional expectations real or imagined, and low
self-confidence are also challenges for some families. Some parents may have had poor
experiences with school and are reluctant to attend programs being held at school. These
programs may make some parents feel uncomfortable as though they are still in the
student role. Parents may also view teachers as professional figures and therefore may be
inclined to keep a respectful distance.
A study by Pena (2000) also found language barriers, parent cliques, parent
education, and attitude of school staff, cultural influences and family issues as
influencing factors in parent involvement. Limited parent involvement appears to be a
matter of international concern, with some influencing factors thait are common to all
societies. 'While there is less diversity in language in Jamaica, there are communication
barriers for parents who speak the local dialect predominantly. Family issues and level of
education for some parents also influence parent involvement. Family finance is also a
major issue.
Most parents depend on expensive public transportation to get to and from work
and to attend parent involvement activities. Some parents reside long distances from
school and cannot afford, or do not have access to transportation. Parents who have not
benefited from education beyond the elementary level may feel intimidated and choose
not to attend. Parent involvement activities planned by schools are not always based on
the needs or interest of parents.
Lack of; or low parent involvement in education in Jamaica is also related to
migration. Many students reside with grandparents; older siblings, distance relatives or
friends while parents migrate to find employment in the United Kingdom or United
States. These substitute parents with children and problems of their own are not always
available for parent involvement activities. "Love in a Barrel: Absentee parents- deprived
children "by Hazel Salmon (2001) says that it seems pertinent to ask whether teachers
should assume the role of surrogate parents in light of deteriorating family, economic and
social conditions that separate some parents fr-om their children.
According to McConkey (1985), both parents and teachers recognize the need for
more parent involvement. A large number of mothers and fathers say they would like to
help but has not been asked, or their offer has not been taken up. Macleod (1989, p.152)
in Politics of Parent Involvement states that
"Teachers are forced to speak with a forked tongue: they know that parental
involvement is desirable but they also know that this implies a shift in the balance
of power between parents and teachers, so many teachers find excuses for taking
no immediate action while uttering the appropriate rhetoric" but teachers also
have their story. Many teachers have not done much by way of fostering parent
involvement because they are not sure how to do so. They did not benefit from
training in this field and administrators do not always plan in -service programs to
satisfy· this need (Lazar, Broderick, Mastrilli & Slostad, 1999).
Parent involvement decreases as students progressively move up the grades in
high school. It has been documented (Stephenson & Baker, 1987) cited in Crosnoe
(2001) that parents tend to become less involved in their children's educational career,
over time, especially after middle school. This decline could be the result of parents
giving their children more autonomy, as the children grow older, or because parents feel
less knowledgeable about more complex materials. In the typical high school setting,
students are faced with a variety of problems caused by the transition from one type of
school or grade into another, changes in teachers and school environment, and an
increase in the academic expectations from parents, teachers and society. Students need
additional help from parents, teachers and the community if they are to do well in school;
unfortunately it is at this time that parents become less involved.
The level of disengagement in the involvement in education by Jamaican parents
is at most mind boggling to educators, since parents usually show a high level of
involvement at the primary level. A noticeable pattern is that once students are placed in
high schools and parent manage to get them settled in at grade seven, involvement drops
to an all time low and again increase at grades ten or eleven when students prepare for
final examinations. The increased involvement at this level is still below the level of
involvement at Grade seven and is more related to financing of examinations, which will
prepare students for college or employment.
It is the responsibility of schools to enable parents to provide the skills and
knowledge needed to help their children at all age levels (Epstein, 2001). It is also the
responsibility of the school to plan programs that will make parents want to be involved.
It is the responsibility of teachers to facilitate parents when they want to be involved as
well as being understanding when parents have good reasons for not being involved at all
times.
Schools
Parents, teachers, and school administrators all have different perceptions of what
parent involvement in education should include. The atmosphere of the school is usually
influenced by the leadership style of the administrator. The leadership style will
ultimately influence the school parent interaction. It is the role of the principal to build
staff moral that will facilitate positive interaction with students and parents, plan and
implement educational programs that will reflect the recognition of the importance of the
family, school community relations, and the development of an effective principal-parent
relationship.
In addition it is the principal's responsibility to establish and maintain an open-
door policy with parents, provide the necessary resources and programs that will support
parent involvement and coordinate parent involvement efforts by teachers and the
development of site-based management committees to sustain parent involvement efforts
(Berger, 2000). The teacher is central to parent involvement in the education process, and
includes being facilitator, teacher, counselor communicator, program director, interpreter,
resource developer and friend (Berger, 2000). Teachers and administrators often
complain that they are expected to do more than they originally bargained for, however,
educators more than any other group are aware that schools more than any other
organization is influenced by societal changes and should be willing to move beyond the
traditional role of teaching academic subjects only. In order to facilitate the students
cognitive, social and emotional development educators must become partners with
parents. Parents and teachers need to have a common understanding of what parent
involvement entails. Too often parents and teachers have different perceptions of what is
expected.
Studies done on parent involvement found that teachers wanted more parent
involvement, particularly in academic areas, and felt that more administrative support for
parent involvement efforts is needed. Parents wanted to be involved in meaningful ways,
not just called in when their children were in trouble (Pryor, 1995). Fathers seem to
appreciate being asked personally to take a role and being invited to participate. They
also like to know that their efforts are appreciated by teachers and others (Turbiville,
Umbarger & Guthrie, 2000). Schools also need to ensure that they take notice of the
changing family structures in society and that parent involvement is not perceived to be
and limited only to families that fit the traditional profile of nuclear family household. In
addition to two parent families (birth parents) today's households are also headed by
single parents, cohabiting parents, gay parents, blended families and families headed by
grandparents. It is important to consider all forms when discussing or planning for parent
involvement in schools. If schools understand the families they serve, including the
demands placed on them by their structures and income levels, they will be better able to
work with them (Procidano & Fisher, 1992).
All parents, wherever they reside or send their children to school, have dreams
and aspirations for their children, dreams that they would like educators and schools to
help them realize. This common dream is to see their children do well in school so that
children can be successful individuals and citizens of society. Schools should therefore
help students and families in achieving their educational goal, regardless of the
characteristics and situations of students' families, and the communities in which they
live or operate. "However configured, however constraint families come with their
children to school. Even when they do not come in person they come in children's minds,
hearts, hopes and dreams. Without exceptions teachers and administrators have explicit
and implicit contact with students' families daily" (Epstein, 2001, p. 4). Without the
bonding and development of a partnership with parents, schools are at risk of dissecting
children into "home child" and "school child" instead of focusing on the child as a whole
person. This is a dangerous way of packaging students and could reduce the guidance,
support and encouragement for children to learn from parents, relatives, religious leaders
and other community persons, and peers.
Studies on the views of parents have found that they recognize the importance of
their involvement to the educational development of their children, however there are
gaps in the way parents view involvement and how schools expect parents to be involved.
Parents raise children according to how they were raised or through trial and error. With
all the rapid changes in society and by extension the family, and with all the
technological changes being experienced in this century, it is important for parents to
constantly change or upgrade parenting skills. They need help in doing this, and since
parents and teachers share a common interest in students, then school is a good place to
begin (McEwan, 1998; Procidano, & Fisher, 1992; Wolfendale, 1993).
Parent Involvement Program at High School
As the field of school, family and community partnership continues to grow and
improve, policy leaders, educators and researchers frkom a wide cross section of academic
disciplines and professional boundaries arrive at new theories, studies, policies and
practices and pathways to the achieving of important goals. New issues about grade-level,
school and teacher changes are emerging. The issue of transition into high school, and
effective ways of planning and implementing programs of family school partnerships to
facilitate this transition is being researched (Epstein, 2001). At high school, students' new
teachers may have different definitions of success. Parents need to know what is
necessary for students to succeed in these classrooms. Teachers also need to know how to
collect information about their students at the beginning of each school year and
periodically during the year.
According to Baker and Stephenson (1986) cited in Epstein (2001), dramatic
declines in parent involvement are noted at the transition points from elementary to
middle and middle to high school. However if high schools conduct strong transitional
activities such as orientating parents about the school while students are still at middle
school this pattern of decline can be reversed. More research is needed in how families
can be included in the many transitional processes and how programs can be planned to
assist parents to help their children.
Jamaican High Schools
Very little research is done on parent involvement in the education of their
children in Jamaican high schools. However from personal observation and experience in
working and supervising high schools, there is much more that can be done to get parents
involved. Parent involvement programs and activities are limited to a few types and
administrators and teachers have not benefited from formal training or workshops on how
to involve parents. Educators therefore are not confident in planning and implementing
effective parent involvement programs. Many of the problems being experienced by
schools presently could be corrected or reduced by effective parent involvement
programs. Transition problems, low academic performance in some subjects, disruptive
students, absenteeism, lateness, skipping of classes, school violence, insubordination to
teachers, suspensions and expulsions can be addressed by effective parent involvement
programs. Existing programs can be strengthened and new ones introduced and delivered
to parents in locations where they have easy access. Good communication techniques and
strategies can be employed to reach parents who are unable to attend, instead of using
attendance as the only means of disseminating information.
Although this topic has enjoyed years of attention through the many studies
already done, there is still much more to be done to teach parents, about the invaluable
benefits that can be derived from being involved in the education of their children, and to
help schools in providing this information to parents. It is hoped that this study will add
to the body of knowledge in this area, especially at the high school level, and provide
valuable guide in the introduction or expansion of existing programs of parent
involvement in Jamaican schools.
Statement of Problem
The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of Jamaican parents
towards parent involvement in the education of their children at high school. The study
was also to identifyr the types of parent involvement activities that schools provided for
parents and how parents would like to see schools improve, how involved parents were
with their children's education at home, school and in the community, what help parents
would like and whether there were significant differences between parent attitude, parent
involvement, parent assistance with homework and parent education level.
Research Oblectives
1. To determine the attitude of Jamaican parents towards parent involvement in
education and the high school their child attends.
2.~ To determine what schools are presently doing to involve parents and how parents
would like to see schools improve their involvement practices.
3. To determine parent involvement at home, at school and in the community, the
amount of time parents spend helping their high school children with homework and
what help parents would need in order to be of more help to children.
4. To determine whether there are significant differences between parent education
level, parent attitude, parent involvement and parent assistance with homework.
Survey questions were developed and administered to parents with children in
high schools in St. Catherine, Jamaica during the Fall 2001 semester. The survey
instruments were sent to Home Economic teachers in schools to be delivered to students
who should take them to parents to be completed. Parents were asked to return the
completed document to the school by their children.
Definition of Terms
For clarity of understanding the following terms need to be defined.
Parent involvement: Researchers have utilized different definitions and models of
parent involvement. According to (Epstein, Coates, Saunders & Simon , 1997), the term
parent involvement has been clarified and recast during the past decade from parent
involvement (left up to parents) to school, family, and community partnership to
emphasize the concept of shared responsibility for children across context, with the main
goal of developing and conducting better communications with families to assist students
in succeeding in school.
For this study parent involvement is any activity organized by parents, teachers
and school administrators individually or collectively to improve communication and
participation of parents in the education of their children.
Parent: Any adult, male, female, birth parents, or guardian who signs the official
school document as the person responsible to the school for the child.
Parent attitude. The feelings or opinion of a parent towards involvement in the
education of their child
High School: Educational institutions involved in the education of children in
grades seven to eleven or age thirteen to seventeen.
Parent 's Level of Education: The level of schooling received by parents.
Assumptions
It is assumed that that parents will want to participate in a survey if they think the
outcome will help them to help their child in high school. It is also assumed that teachers
will issue survey to students and students will take them home to parents and return them
when completed. It is also assumed that parents will understand the instructions given for
completing the survey and answer the questions honestly so that the study will enjoy a
high degree of validity,
Although gender is not an issue in this study, the investigator is assuming based
on past experiences in attending P.T.A. meetings in Jamaica, that most parents who
participate in the survey will be mothers. The investigator is also assuming that some
parents may not complete and return the documents on time to meet the deadline set.
Limitations
The limitations of this study may be the inability or high cost for the investigator
to contact Jamaican parents for the speedy return of survey instruments. Events of
September 11i, 2001 affected the delivery of the survey. The excessive flooding in
Jamaica that resulted in the destruction of roads and bridges affected the survey return
rate. Information on specific aspects of parent involvement in Jamaican high schools may
not be available in literature and may be heavily reliant on investigators experience in
working in and supervising programs in these schools. This study will not cover all
aspects of parent involvement in education in Jamaican high schools.
CHAPTER TWO
Literature Review
This chapter will review the literature on the early beginning and growth of the
parent involvement movement, parent involvement models and types, attitudes towards
parent involvement, (parents, teachers, school administrators and community populace),
and what high schools can do to improve existing levels of parent involvement.
Parent involvement has been in the spotlight among educators, administrators,
researchers and policy makers for decades. The quantity of research being done on the
topic has created an emerging field of study with changes of names and focus over the
years. In the early years of research on the topic studies were conducted on the topics of
family, school and community. These contexts were· treated separately (Epstein, 2001).
After heated debates among researchers in the 1960-1970 about which was more
important researchers agreed that the three contexts of family, school and community are
all important. Partnership among these entities will more effectively accomplish the task
of educating, socializing and preparing children for life. All three entities simultaneously
influence children's development (Epstein, 2001).
In 1990 the movement of the effective school attracted the attention of educators
and researchers. Although parent involvement was not one of the original elements of the
effective school it was quickly added to the expanding components that were identified
by researchers and practitioners as vital for school improvement and student success. In
1983 the report "A Nation at Risk" by the National Commission on Excellence in
Education started to focus on the need to improve all schools. In the 1980's studies began
to clarify the terms parent involvement, school and family partnerships and school family
and community partnership to emphasize the shared responsibility for children across the
three contexts.
In 1990 growth in the field of study was assisted by the creation of the National
Center on Family, Community School and Children Learning, by the Federal
Government to conduct active research development, evaluation and policy studies to
focus on students and families from birth to ten years and the years of early and late
adolescence, age eleven to nineteen. The research in family school and community
partnerships has now made great progress and has blended across boundary and
disciplines. Researchers in sociology, psychology, social work, anthropology, education
home and family studies are all building on the work done by one another to contribute
new findings that can direct decisions, policies and practices (Epstein, 2001).
According to Henderson and Berla (1995), the evidence is beyond dispute, that
when schools work along with families to support learning children tend to succeed in
school and throughout life, Furthermore, the most accurate predictor of a students'
achievement in school is not income or social status, but the extent to which their families
are able to create home environments that encourage leamning. When schools and families
work together to support learning parents tend to set high but realistic expectations for
their children's future and career development. Parents also become more involved in the
education of their children at school and in the community. When parents become
involved in these ways students usually progress to higher grades in school, gain good
scores on tests, improve in school and class attendance, and complete more homework.
Students are also less likely to be placed in special education, display more positive
attitudes, behave well in school, are more likely to graduate and euroll in post secondary
education programs. Families also benefit by developing more confident in their
children's school, and are viewed more positively by their children's teachers. Teachers
also develop higher expectations of the children whose families work with them. When
families work with teachers in the education of their children, families develop more
confidence in helping their children to learn at home. Parents also develop more
confidence in themselves as parents and usually enroll in classes to improve their own
education (Henderson & Berla, 1995).
Schools and communities that work with families profit from improved teacher
morale, higher ratings of teachers by parents, more support from families, higher student
achievement, and better reputation in the community. Therefore when parents are
involved in their children' education at home, their children do better at school. When
parents are involved at school, their children go further in school, and the schools they
attend also improve.
High School Education in Jamaica
The dreams and aspirations of Jamaican parents are similar to those of parents
worldwide, regarding their children. Parents hope that their children will like school;
work hard; improve academically as they progress throughout the grades from primary to
high school to university; complete training without contributing to the statistics on
school or college dropouts; gain meaningful employment and become productive
members of society. The process or pathway for getting to the point of completing
training and gaining employment may vary among countries based on the model of the
education system and the societal expectations. For Jamaican parents it is a long struggle
because of the limited number of high schools.
To achieve a place in high school in Jamaica is a great accomplishment for
students, their parents and the teachers who teach these students. When examination
results are published in May of each year, both parents and teachers are happy celebrate
their children's accomplishments. These high school places are awarded based on scores
received in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), an examination administered by
the Ministry of Education to tests students' performance across the primary curriculum at
age twelve. This test is necessary since the country does not possess enough high schools
to. allow for the free flow of students from the primary level on to the secondary level.
According to the Guidelines for GSAT Placement, Ministry of Education, Jamaica (2000)
the use of parental choice, student performance and location of school (distance from
home) are the main criteria for placement (GSAT Placement, 2000).
Parents are not always happy with these placements. According to a parent in an
open letter to The Minister of Education, (Jamaica Daily Gleaner, July 11i, 2001), "I am
totally perplexed as to how children who sat the GSAT examination are placed in high
schools". Despite the assurance given by the Ministry of Education yearly, parents have
their own preconceived ideas about schools that are good and placements that appear to
be in violation of these guidelines. Parents are usually very involved in the education of
their children at the primary level to ensure that they achieve a place in high school. The
involvement starts as early as when children enter school since parents have preconceived
ideas of schools that are "good" and will prepare their children well, for the GSAT
examination. Parents also pay extra money to have their children get additional academic
training before and after regular school hours, starting from as early as grade one to
ensure that children will perform well in this examination. Parents have also been known
to use inappropriate means like a false home address, or a change of school close to the
time when children sit the examination, to increase the chances of their children getting
into a school of their choice. According to (The Jamaica National Survey of Living
Conditions, 2000), 16.7% of the 15-6 age cohort were not enrolled in any school for the
1999 school year. The limited number of high schools has contributed to this situation.
Parents are aware that if students are not placed at age twelve, there is a strong possibility
that their child may eventually form a part of this statistic. There was also an increase in
the number of primary age students enrolled in secondary schools (INSOLe, 2000).
Some parents may be placing their children in high schools before the recommended age.
This could be parents effort to ensure a place early.
When examination results are published yearly, some parents again spend extra
time and money traveling to schools, and to the Ministry of Education, to lobby for a
change of school, if they are unhappy with the placement of their children in schools.
Many parents are unsuccessful in obtaining a transfer since placements are based on
examination scores, distance from home to school and the number that the schools can
accommodate. Some parents are unable to access places for their children. However, if
government targets (Green Paper on Education, 2004) are met, this problem will be
somewhat alleviated.
Gaining acceptance in a tertiary institution, or finding gainful employment after
school, also requires high performance at the high school level. The number of subjects
students achieve in internally or externally set examinations determines the type of
tertiary institutions into which students are accepted. Passes in at least four subjects
including English Language will qualify students for some tertiary institutions while as
many as eight subjects including English Language and Mathematics are required for
others (JBTE, 1980). Students are also accepted based on how well the subjects acquired,
relate to the program to be studied at the tertiary level. This along with the high cost of
education makes parent involvement a vital component in the educational achievement of
students.
Unfortunately after such hard work on the part of students with the support of
their parents to access places in high schools, the dreams or goals of parents and their
children are not always realized. Some Jamaican students do not perform as well as is
expected when they enter high school. According to Epstein (2001) in order to address
questions about goals, questions about roles must also be addressed. All stakeholders in
education, and researchers in this field, readily acknowledge the roles of parents,
educators and school administrators in building and sustaining partnerships that will help
children in achieving their educational goals. Jamaican parents recognize that they need
to be more involved in the education of their children, this is confirmed by their
involvement up to the entry of the children into high school. Why does the level of
involvement fall when these children enter high school? Could it be that parents are
uncertain about the role they should play at this level? Why does parent involvement
again peak between grades ten and eleven when students are again getting ready to sit
school leaving and final examinations? Parents are also very involved for high school
graduation. They spend large sums of money to finance gowns, caps, rings, expensive
outfits for the graduation ball at expensive hotels and other locations. Do parents feel that
the best help they are capable of offering is help in terms of finances?
School administrators and teachers need to do more to educate parents about their
roles in the education of their children at high school, to identify the help parents need
and to plan parent involvement programs that will satisfy these needs. Teachers also need
to recognize the social problems that sometimes inhibit the level of involvement expected
and accept that not all parents will be involved in all planned activities at all times.
However, if enough activities are planned at various times parents will get involved.
Teachers must begin to address this problem from the point of strengths identified
in~parents. Since parents show interest in students performing well in examinations,
teachers can help parents help their children perform better academically and expand the
parent involvement program from that point into, other areas.
More research needs to be done in the Jamaican context to determine the factors
that influence and can improve parent involvement at the high school level. "Love in a
barrel: Absentee parents-deprived children" a study done by Hazel M. Salmon (2001)
published on the website of the National Council on Education states that it is pertinent to
ask at this point whether teachers should assume the role of surrogate parents when
natural parents migrate to other countries. However it should also be recognized that
many parents who are not the victims of migration are not playing their expected roles
and are in need of help in doing so. Further, Salmon makes reference to the efforts of a
School Community Outreach Program for Education which initiates the collaboration of
home, school and community in undertaking the task involved in nurturing children to
acquire the skills, attitudes and values necessary for successful functioning in the society.
Indeed this program needs to be expanded so that it touches the lives of all families and
assist all schools in the expansion of this needed partnership.
Models of Parent Involvement
No other topic about school improvement has stirred more interest in the past
decade, as has parent involvement in the education of their children. The various forms
by which parent involvement may be introduced to obtain maximum benefits for
students, parents, teachers and society at large make studying and researching of the topic
even more interesting. Up until recently the focus was placed on only a few overworked
methods of parent involvement which did not sustain lasting interest among those
concerned. This section will review the literature on various types! models of parent
involvement.
Studies done on parent involvement have provided invaluable amounts of*
information that can be beneficial to policy makers, teachers, and school administrators
about how parent involvement may be introduced. According to Pelco, Roger, Jacobson,
and Melka (2000), this growing body of research supports the basic premise that positive
connections between families and schools influence a variety of outcomes. Pelco, Roger,
Jacobson, and Melka (2000) further explained that parent involvement is a multi-
dimension construct that relates to a variety of student, parent, school administrator, and
teacher behaviors, outcomes, and effects. Further it has been difficult to generalize across
studies because researchers have utilized different definitions and models of parent
involvement. Pelco, Roger, Jacobson and Melka (2000) also cited work done by
Anderson, Bickley, Keith, Trivette and Sing (1995) that identified several sources from
which four major categories under which most major categories of parent involvement
have been classified. These categories are: parent academic aspirations and expectations
for children, participation in school activities and programs, home variables that support
learning and communication with children about school.
Researchers have suggested a variety of parent involvement models, many of
which are in practice in many schools. According to Swap, (1993, p. 27) "Models may
be formal of informal, explicit or implicit, recognized or unrecognized, but they provide
a consistent pattern of assumptions, goals, attitudes, behavior and strategies that help us
to understand parent-educator relationships in the school." It is against this background
that she suggested one model in 1987 (Swap, 1987) which she later expanded on in
1993. Recognizing that there are a variety of models, all with strengths and challenges,
will allow educators to debate and carefully examine models before choosing. This
examination will help to avoid the random "scattershot' programming in parent
involvement which now exist in many schools.
Swap (1987) recognizing that parents have different interests and should not be
made to feel that they must attend all activities, suggests seven options for parent
involvement with the goal of involving parents in some form of activity during the year.
These options are:
- Parent as audience e.g. curriculum fairs, school open days, music, drama, or
sports events
- Parents as advocates (attending parent! teachers conferences or participating in
the development of their child's education plan)
- Parents as helpers (chaperones, fund raisers, volunteers.)
- Parents as leamners (attending parent seminars workshops and discussion groups)
- Parents as partners (school board members, committee members, problem
solving groups).
- Parents as experts (leading workshop training in areas of expertise, consulting to
schools in areas of skills, resource persons in curriculum areas).
- Parents as just people (participating in activities like school suppers or hobby
groups).
After further research on models Swap (1993) suggested other models of home
school relationships: The protective model, the school to home transmission model and
the curriculum enrichment model. The protective model is to reduce conflicts between
parent and educators through the separation of functions. It aims to protect the school
from interference by parents and is driven by assumptions that parents delegate the
responsibility of educating their children to the school, holds school personnel
accountable for results and educators accept this responsibility. When this model is used
it would be inappropriate to expect parent involvement in decision-making or any form of
collaborative problem solving. Parent involvement would be viewed as interfering with
the educator's job. In this model ritualized formats are dominant and the opportunity for
authentic dialogue is restricted.
The protective model of parent involvement is limited to one advantage, that of
protecting the school against parental intrusion. The challenges are that it increases
conflicts between home and school by providing no opportunity for preventative problem
solving, ignores the opportunity for collaboration between school and home which is
already established as vital for student achievement, and rejects vital resources for school
enrichment and support from families and community members (Swap, 1993).
The school-to-home transmission model enlists parents in supporting the
objectives of the school. Children's achievement is fostered by continuity of expectations
and values between home and school. School personnel should identify the values and
*practices outside of the school that contribute to the school's success. Parent should
endorse the importance of schooling and support this by providing a home environment
to ensure that minimum academic and the child meets social requirements (Swap, 1993).
Parents have responsibilities to help children succeed within the guidelines of the school.
Many schools depend on parents to contribute to the enrichment of the curriculum by
being present and supporting activities. Within this model, the school personnel define
the goals and programs with the understanding that parents will support the school's
obj ectives.
In the school-to-home transmission model, (Swap, 1993), school personnel
appreciate that parents are not always successfu~l in preparing their children to learn in
school, as the schools would want. Educators accept this limitation or help parents by
offering training to them or to the children or both. Training of parents is a core
component in this model. However, when parents do not participate educators often feel
that parents lack interest in the process of involvement which is not always the case.
Strategies that are recommended to support this model can generate vital connections in
communications, support for parents, parents support for school and home learning.
The curriculum enrichment model is to expand and enrich the school curriculum
by including the contributions of families. This module assumes that parents have
important expertise and that the interactions between school personnel and parents and
the implementation of the revised curriculum will enhance the educational objectives of
the school. The rationale supporting this approach is that the school curriculum will more
accurately reflect the views, values, history and learning styles of the families that it
serves (Swap, 1993). Therefore encouraging continuity of learning between home and
school is critical to encouraging children's learning. The inclusion of values and cultural
histories will support continuity between home and school and encourage motivational
status and achievement and a more accurate curriculum with more comprehensive
understanding of events and achievements and a perpetuation of positive beliefs and
attitudes about immigrant and oppressed minorities.
Another reason for parents to be involved in curriculum enrichment is to allow
schools to draw on special expertise that parents may have to share by virtue of their
education. In both cases the important assumption is that the interaction of parents and
teachers will enrich curriculum objectives and content and improve relationships between
home and school based on mutual respect for their expertise and resources in the process
of educational discovery.
Wolfendale (1985) suggests a model that uses a system of taxonomy as a starting
framework for generating school-parent-partnership policies. This taxonomy should have
two domains: parents into schools and school to home. The parent into school domain
would include areas of involvement by parents within the school context with the main
types of involvements listed against each area and particular focus of involvement against
each type. In this domain the perspective and responsibilities of the school are
paramount.
28
Area Type FocusConcrete and Practical Basic help with learning Classroom and school
fundraising and support:practical skills: social meetings
Pedagogical and Problem- Syllabus design and planning, CurriculumSolving co-tutoring of school and
home-based learning (generaled. remedial, special ed.)school based discussion ofprogress
Policy and Governing Educational decision-making; School as institutionparents as governors
Communal Groups for parents and Communitychildren school to home
Area Type FocusInformation Verbal, written Home and parents
communications,letters, reports, newsletterscheck and recording systems
Support Home visiting (enquiry, Home and familycounseling relations-fostering)imparting information,discussion of child's progress
Instructions Educational home visitor Home and familyteaching briefs (handicap,special ed.)
Representation Input by schools into Home and communitycommunity (resource sharing,resource loan local meetingplaces focal places forcooperative learning)
(Wolfendale, 1985, p. 184)
Fiqure 1. Parent Into Schools
The principle of reciprocity rests with both parents and school in this model
allowing for mutual involvement, mutual accountability, mutual gain and should include
the processes of the evolution of agreed aims; a statement of the means by which the
contributions of parents and professionals can be met, and consensus regarding the
criteria for failure or success of the effort (Wolfendale, 1985).
Epstein, Coates, Saunders and Simon (1997) emphasized that the term parent
involvement has been classified and recast during the past decade from parent
involvement (left up to parents) to school, family, and community partnerships to
emphasize the concept of shared responsibility for children across context. She views the
main goal of these partnerships as developing and conducting better communications
with families across the grades to assist students in succeeding in school.
Epstein, Coates, Saunders and Simon (1997) also identified some important
patterns relating to partnerships that have emerged from interviews with teachers,
parents, and students at elementary, middle, and high school levels. These patterns are: a
decline in involvement across the grades unless schools and teachers work to develop
and implement appropriate practices of partnership at each grade level. More positive
involvement was reported in affluent communities unless schools and teachers in
economically depressed communities work to develop positive partnership with families.
Schools in economically depressed communities contact families more about students'
problems unless schools work hard at programs to contact parents about positive
achievements. Single parents employed outside the home, parents who live far from
school and fathers are less involved at the school unless the school organized activities or
opportunities at various times in various places to improve involvement. These patterns
identified by Epstein are really indications of how vital it is to design deliberate action
plans in schools across grades with maximum input from parents and teachers, to arrive
at an effective parent involvement program. Based on her research and observations her
model.
Epstein (1997) further identified six types of parent involvement, each of which is
capable of inducing many different actions and challenges that must be met in order to
have maximum family involvement and recast the meaning of parent involvement. These
six types of involvement provide schools with a variety of choices about the combination
they will adopt to achieve set goals. The six types of parent involvement identified are:
parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision- making and
collaborating with the community.
Parenting. This is supporting the nurturing and rearing children. This type
of involvement should help all families to establish a leamner friendly
enviroument at home to support children in their roles as students at each
grade level. The home enviroument that will support parenting could include
workshops, video tapes, computerized phone messages on parenting and child
rearing for each age and grade level, parent edu~cation and other courses or
training for parents (e.g., literacy classes and skill training), family support
programs to assist with health, nutrition and wellness, elder care and home visits
especially at the point of transition to high school: community meetings to help
family and school understand one another (Epstein, 2001).
This type of involvement will improve students awareness of family supervision,
help students to be more respecting of parents, and develop positive personal qualities,
values and attitudes as taught by their parents. It will also help them to balance time for
home chores, other activities and homework, improve attendance at school and classes
and develop an awareness of the importance of school.
There are benefits to be accrued by parents involved in this type of involvement.
They will be more understanding of and confidence about parenting children at the
different stages of development and the changes that are necessary in the home
environment as students mature and proceed through school. Parents will also be more
aware of the challenges of parenting and develop a feeling of support from school
community and other parents (Epstein, 2001).
Parenting will also result in teachers being more understanding of the family
backgrounds, cultures, concerns, goals, and respect for family strengths and weaknesses,
as well as their own abilities to share information on child development with parents.
Most educators will agree that this method of involvement will make a difference.
However according to Lazar, Broderick, Mastrilli and Slostad (1999), the failure to
address parent involvement in both university and professional development contexts
sends a message that it is unimportant. They believe that this gap in teacher education has
left teachers wanting in knowledge to support and carry out parent involvement
initiatives.
Communicating as a type of involvement is to design effective communication
from school to home and from home to school about school programs and activities as
well as students progress. This includes a variety of practices like one-to-one conferences
with parents at least once yearly with follow up as needed, arrangements for language
translators to help parents where necessary, sending students work home for parents to
review and make comments, on weekly or monthly, parent-student pick up of reports and
conferencing on how to improve grades, regular schedule of notices news letters,
telephone calls or other forms of communication to keep school and parents informed
clear information about choosing courses and examination board requirements, guidelines
for the performance of school based assessment exercises, and clear information about all
school policies programs and reforms (Epstein, 2001).
Good communication can result in students being more aware of their own
progress and the necessary actions needed to maintain or improve grades, clearer
understanding of school policies on behavior, attendance at school and at classes, dress
code, rules regarding the initiation of new students, school hours departure and arrival, to
make informed decisions about courses and programs, and an awareness of the
importance of their own role in the partnership serving as a messenger in the
commumication process.
Parents con benefit from this type of involvement through a better understanding
of the school policies, more effective monitoring of student's progress, responding
effectively and appropriately to student's problems, and better interactions and ease of
communications with the teacher and school (Procidano & Fisher, 1992) This type of
involvement will also result in benefit for the teacher. There will be an increase in the
diversity and use of communication skills with families and an awareness of teacher' s
own ability to communicate clearly and effectively. The teacher will develop an
appreciation for, and use of parent network for communications and an increased ability
to elicit and understand family views about students and school's programs and progress
(Epstein, 2001). In a study done by Pena (2000), language was identified as one of the
barriers to parent involvement. It was found that some parents are unable to communicate
in English, and enough effort in not always made by school personnel to bridge this gap.
In some cases according to Pena, parents are intimidated by educational jargon, which
impedes communication between them and teachers.
Volunteering, as a type of involvement, is the recruiting and organizing of parent
help and support. It is probably the most popular type used by schools and the most
disliked by parents. Some of the practices associated with volunteering are school and
classroom volunteer programs to help teachers, students, administrators and parents.
Parent room or family centers, homework centers, meetings, resources for families,
annual events to identify talents among parents, and to identify willing volunteers, class
telephone and address directory of parents or other structures to help families with
needed information, are all ways of recruiting and organizing the help and support of
parents. Parent involvement in fund raising events special sports program and other
activities to aid the safety and operation of school programs are also good examples of
volunteering (Epstein, 1997; Morrison, 1978).
Students can benefit from a number of positive results of volunteering. They gain
skill in communicating with adults, increase learuing in areas where volunteer tutoring is
done, and become more aware of the many skills, talents, occupations and contributions
of parents and other volunteers
Parents can benefit from volunteering. They usually become more understanding
of teacher's job, develop more comfort in the school environment and more comfort in
the transfer of school activities at home Parents usually develop more self-confidence in
working in school and with children or to take steps to improve their own education. Also
they become more aware that they are welcomed at school and may develop specific
skills in volunteer work (Berger, 2000).
Volunteering results in teachers being more ready to involve parents in new ways
including parents who do not participate at school. Teachers become more aware of
parents' talents and interests in school and children and are able to give more individual
attention to students with the help from volunteers. Parents are usually willing to
participate in volunteering if they have an input into the types of activities planned. Care
should be taken not to lock parents into traditional roles of volunteering as some parents
really resent this. Both mothers and fathers should be encouraged to volunteer. Bauch,
Chavkin, Kerbow, Bernhardt, Moles, and Scot-Jones cited in Pena (2000) found that
working class and minority parents, if included in school activities, have tended to be
included mostly in the traditional roles of flindraisers and chaperones.
Learning at home is the type of involvement that provides information and ideas
to families about how to help students at home with homework and other curriculum-
related planning, activities and decisions. Information is provided to families on the skills
required by students in all subjects at each grade, homework policies and how to monitor
and discuss school-work at home, how to assist students to improve skills on various
class, school or exam based assessments, regular schedule of homework that requires
student-parent interactions, calendar of activities for parents and students to do at home
or in the community together such as doing a project in the community or visiting the
library together (Scot-Jones,1995). This type of involvement also includes family
activities at school such as math, science reading, summer learning activities, and family
participation in setting students goals each year and planning for college or work.
Learning at home helps students to gain skills, abilities. Test scores linked to
homework and class-work, encourage students to complete homework, and develop
positive attitudes towards school work. Students view parents and home as being more
similar to teachers and school, and develop a more positive self concept in their ability as
a learner (Epstein, 2001; Scot-Jones, 1995). Parents learn how to support, encourage and
help students at home. They will be able to discuss schoolwork and home work, develop
a better understanding of what children are learning each year, develop appreciation for
teaching skills and become more aware of the child as a learner.
Learning at home can result in teachers spending more time to design homework
that will provide more information to family members about how to help children at
home. Teachers also develop more respect for family time, and recognition of the help
that can be derived from all types of families in motivating and reinforcing student
learning. Teachers will also be more satisfied with parent's help and support (Scott-Jones
1995; Epstein, 2001) discusses four levels of involvement of parents and students in
homework: valuing, monitoring, assisting and doing. Families should be provided with
good information in order to convey to their children the importance of homework as an
essential task. It is a general agreement that parents should not do their children's
homework. Therefore applications have been designed, developed and tested to help
educators to systematically, equitably and productively involve families at home and in
school to improve student leamning. Epstein (2001) provides guidelines for how Teachers
Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS), and acknowledges that this type of involvement
requires every teacher to understand the connections between class lesson, student
leamners, and family as influential partners for children's learning.
Decision-making used as a type of parent involvement includes the involvement
of parents as vital participants in important school decisions and governance, and the
developing of parent leaders and representatives. Some practices involved in decision
making include active parent- teacher associations, advisory councils or committees,
inclusion of parents on school boards, forming of independent advocacy groups to lobby
and work for school reform and improvements, community councils and committees for
family and community involvement, information on schools, and selection of school
representatives such as principals or members of the school board, and an effective
networking system to link all parents with these representatives (Epstein, 2001;
Henderson & Berla, 1995).
Decision making involvement will result in students being more aware of the
representation of families in school decisions. There is also a general understanding that
students' rights are protected. Students also experience benefits linked to policies enacted
by parents' organizations. This type of involvement will also result in more input from
parents into policies that affect their children's education. Parents feel a sense of
ownership of the school, and awareness that they have a voice in major school decisions.
Parents are also afforded the opportunity to share experiences and connections with other
families, and are more informed of school, regional and national policies regarding
education (Botrie & Wenger, 1992; Berger, 2000).
Decision making involvement can also accrue benefits for the teacher. The
teacher will be more aware of the perspectives of parents as a factor in policy
development and decision-making and views of equal status of family representatives on
committees and leadership roles. Epstein (2001) discusses participation and leadership in
decision making and identifies the task of having parent representatives to reflect the
diverse population of students, parents and communities served by schools as one of the
main challenges facing this method of involvement. Schools may meet this challenge by
creating leadership positions for community representatives to reach out to groups that
are traditionally unrepresented, to ensure that all parents have a voice in school decisions,
by getting involved. Epstein (2001) also found that getting parents involved in decision
making is difficult since most families do not want to serve on committees or in
leadership roles. However, most families want parents' voices represented in school
decisions. This is therefore an area of great challenge for all educators. Deliberate effort
has to be formulated to develop decision-making skills and strategies.
Collaborating with the community is the identification and integration of
resources and services from the community to strengthen school programs, family
practices and student learning and development. This type of involvement includes
information for parents and students on community health, culture, recreation, social
support; and other programs or services. Information on community activities that link to
leamning skills and talents such as summer programs for students is beneficial for student
development. Service integration through partnerships involving schools, civic
organizations, other agencies and businesses, to assist with counseling, cultural, health,
recreational and other activities are also examples of resources and services that can
strengthen school programs and be of benefit to students. Services offered to the
community by students, families, and schools, and participation of alumni in school
programs for students are also vital practices in collaborating with the community
(Wolfendale, 1983).
Collaborating with the community will result in increased skills and talents for
students through enriched curricular and co-curricular experiences. Students also become
more informed about careers and options for future education and work benefits when
there is a link between school and community program, services and resources.
With school-community collaboration parents will develop knowledge and make
use of local resources to increase their skills and talents or to obtain needed services.
Parents also get an opportunity to interact with other families in community activities,
and develop an awareness of the school's role in the community, and the community's
contribution to the school.
School-community collaboration will also result in teachers becoming more
aware of community resources to enrich curriculum and instructions. Teachers become
more open and develop more skill in using mentors, business partners, community
volunteers, and others to assist students and enhance teaching practices. Teachers will
also be better able to make knowledgeable helpful referrals of students and families to
needed services.
All schools are located in communities. However many schools are isolated from
the community businesses, agencies, senior citizens, cultural centers and other facilities
that can be of benefit to schools and students. The tendency, especially in the Jamaican
context, to call upon these agencies chiefly for financial assistance could weaken the
effects of this method. There are many more benefits to be derived from this method.
Some schools also benefit from being located in areas where they serve a wide cross
section of communities with a variety of opportunities. Schools also have an obligation to
serve the communities in which they are located to develop a true partnership.
According to Epstein (2001), schools have choices in their approach to involving
families in their children's education. One approach emphasizes conflicts and views the
school and school personnel as adversaries trying to prevent their children from getting
the best out of school. The conditions and relationship in this type of environment
encourages poor relations between the two entities that should be working together in the
interest of students. The opposite approach emphasizes partnership between these two
entities and views the school as an extension of home. This environment invites sharing
and mutual respect and allows for the sharing of energies within both groups to foster
activities that will enhance students' progress in all directions. When conflicts arises in
this type of environment, the relationships that have developed by working together will
allow for quick resolution and the restoration of peace and the continued working
together among partners.
Attitudes Towards Parent Involvement
More progress in parent involvement can be achieved if all stakeholders in this
venture recognize their affitudes and the attitudes of others in the effort to educate, plan,
and implement programs. Strategic action must be planned to encourage positive attitudes
and change negative ones (Epstein, 2001; Henderson & Berla, 1994). Since it has been
established by all, that parent involvement is vital for students success, and is one of the
all marks of the effective school, with benefits for schools, families and communities, the
investigator is assuming that attitudes towards parent involvement is one of the reasons
why the practice is minimal in many schools. This section will examine the attitudes of
those who would be regarded as the main players- parents, teachers, school
administrators and community populous.
Parents Attitude
All parents want the best for their children. "There is no evidence that today's
parents are less committed or less caring. Parents have not changed, but the loss of
community, the increased fragmentation of family life the competing and often
conflicting pressures affect their ability to provide the family life that children so
desperately need" Boyer (1991) cited in Berger (2000, p.). All parents would like their
children to do better in school than they did. "Parents do not consciously or
unconsciously neglect their children. When they do things that some of us consider
undesirable it is not from a lack of desire to teach properly but often because of their life
circumstances and the order of priority they face" (Gordon & Breivogel, 1976, p.76).
Parents want to be involved and will be when there is variety in approaches and activities
of parent involvement, and when they are treated as equal partners.
Many parents would like to be involved but are not sure how to do so. Parents
need to develop and gain experience, and need help in doing so. Some parents stay away
from school, not because they do not want to be involved but because they may have had
bad experiences with school and are uncomfortable when they attend parent activities at
school. Parents also stay away from involvement activities because they feel that they are
not welcomed at the school building or by the teacher of their children. In a study -The
National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS: 88) conducted by the National Center
for Educational Statistics (NCES) published by (Ryan, Adams, Golotta, Weissberg &
Hampton, 1995), parents with students in middle grades were asked how often schools
contacted them about different types of involvement. About 60% of parents reported that
school never contacted them for information about the student or the family, for school
records. Only 5% of parents reported three or more of such contacts. On communications
about school programs and student's progress, 65%, of parents said the school never
contacted them about their child's academic program, 45% were never contacted about
their child's academic performance, and 69% had no contact about student's behavior.
Most parents were never asked to volunteer, 60% reported no contact for curriculum
options, and 59% were never asked to participate in fundraising (Ryan, Adams, Gullotta,
Weissberg & Hampton, 1995). Since parents already feel unwelcome they should be
invited to school. Many parents feel incapable of helping their children when they are at
the high school level because they may not have benefited from that level of education
and feel incompetent in assisting their children. These parents would be willing to help if
teachers showed them how. Parents are also busy with other family, financial and
personal problems such as finding money to send the children to school. Many parents
have to work a double shift to be able to afford the cost of schooling and would help
children more if they are taught how to do this at home, instead of incurring the extra cost
of visiting school (Swap, 1997, 1983; McConkey, 1985).
Finally many parents are intimidated by the way they are treated when they take
time out to visit school. They would rather be spoken to in regular language that they
understand and in a kind encouraging way. Parents also do not have long hours to spend
at school and would rather have short meetings than long drawn out ones. Parents feel
that there is little need to be involved with high school students who are doing well
academically and need to be reminded that these students also need their involvement if
not for academic for other needs and moral support.
Teachers Attitude
It is now the feeling that teachers and parents have become natural enemies
instead of natural allies on the issue of the application of parent involvement. This seems
to be confirmed by the evidence seen in the difficulty of parents and teachers working
together to achieve more parental involvement in education. In theory the two groups
seem to agree on the importance of the venture, however that is also where "seeing eye to
eye" ends. A poll taken by the National Education Association found that 90% of
teachers across United States thought that more parent-school interaction would be
beneficial (Swap, 1993), yet studies after studies reveal that teachers are not always
positive about certain types of parent involvement. Some teachers are not enthusiastic
about sharing the process of decision making with parents at school. (Swap, 1993;
Henderson & Berla, 1995; Pryor, 1995; Feuerstein, 2000; Pena, 2000; and Ramirez,
2001).
Swap (1993, p.46-47) reported the comments made by some teachers, about
involving parents in decision making.
"Parents may not recognize my expertise and training. Why should parents have an equal
voice in curriculum decisions? I have had many years of training to prepare me for what I
do. Why is teachers' expertise given so little respect? Do patients have an equal voice
with physicians in deciding on their medical treatment?"
"Parents will negotiate for the needs of their children, not for the needs of all children.
Some parents can be cruel in the way they talk to us and about us when they disagree
with what we are doing."
"Parents contribution to educational decisions may be influenced not by academic
arguments but by religion or political beliefs. This school cannot be an arena for
evangelizing or politicking."
"The parents who usually get involved in decision making represent only one sub-group
of the school. Why should these activists be given more power than other parents"?
According to Swap (1993), powerful barriers are preventing teachers from
reaching out to parents. These barriers include demographics, school norms that do not
support partnership, limited resources to support partnership and lack of information on
how to establish partnership programs. "Demography has created revolutions changes in
the family, that are affecting students achievement. Until there are parent reforms, school
reform cannot be realized" (Beacon, 1990, cited in Swap, 1993). Educators who are of
this opinion feel that since it is parents who are failing to meet their obligation to
children, it is not the school's responsibility to reach out to parents in new ways. This is
commonly observed when parents fail to respond to traditional forms at activities planned
by schools and educators assume that parents are uncaring.
Teachers in their effort to involve parents constantly forget or deliberately omit
fathers. Parent involvement has become or is expected to be mother involvement and this
could be one of the reasons for low parent involvement in education of their children.
"The importance of mother-child relationship has been so stressed in recent years that it
almost seem fathers need merely to provide material things for their offspring. The work
with handicapped children has shown how mistaken this view is. Where fathers show
responsibility for upbringing and care there is a much better chance of the child
triumphing over his disabilities than if the mother is left to cope by herself "(Mia
Kellmer-Pringle, 1975, cited in MoConkley, 1985). This holds true for other children also.
Parent involvement rates would be much higher if schools make an effort to involve
fathers. Fathers also head many single parent households and non-custodial fathers are
many times anxious to participate if they are given the chance. The recent national
household education survey published by the National Center for Education Statistics on
Fathers' and Mothers' involvement in their children's school by family type and resident
status (2001), showed that the level of father involvement is similar to that of mothers in
families headed by single parents. Being given the opportunity to be involved is an
entitlement for fathers and educators should not deliberately or unintentionally rob them
of this opportunity.
Teachers are sometimes overwhelmed, because teaching like parenting is a
difficult job, and the demographic changes that are affecting parents are also affecting
them. It is difficult for teachers to make themselves available for activities before and
after school hours and on weekends when time is not compensated and special
arrangements have to be made for childcare and transportation. Teachers cannot fully
understand why, after making sacrifices to be available, parents cannot make similar
sacrifices to be present. Expectations for higher teacher performance have been increased
despite complex teacher environment and declining community support (Swap 1993).
Increase in the diversity of children has outweighed the number of by lingual or
multi-lingual teachers, in the profession, making communication with students and
parents more difficult. Many schools are known to have students who speak several
different languages other than English and the nation is presently experiencing a critical
shortage of bilingual teachers. Cultural differences make it difficult for some teachers to
work with some parents According to (Swap, 1993) one female teacher that he spoke to
mentioned the emotional turmoil she was experiencing with a male student of Middle
Eastern decent whose cultural orientation taught him not to accept the authority of a
woman over his behavior or learning.
Communication in a supportive work environment also affects the attitudes of
teachers. Some teachers are unaware of what other teachers or school administrators are
doing to plan programs of parent involvement. Many teachers communicate with parents
only when students are doing poorly or when there are problems with students' behavior.
Teachers explain that with large classes to teach and all the other duties they are expected
to do at school, it is not humanly possible to call parents on other occasions. Teachers are
also concerned that they lack formal or I training on how to involve parents and more
should be done by school administrators to prepare them, Lazar, Broderick, Mastrilli and
Slostad (1999) in their article "Educating teachers for parent involvement" suggest that
teachers be provided with the knowledge, time, resources and recognition necessary to
involve parents in education, and suggest that professional development facilitators be
mindful of teachers needs in this area, and that they solicit teachers' ideas about the kind
of parent involvement workshops they need.
It is clear that teachers and parents appear not to be working well together because
each group seems to be unaware of the factors that are impacting on the attitudes of the
other. Unless both groups make an effort to understanding the other's situation and agree
to meet each other part way schools will continue to "Resemble a football field where
teachers and parents play against one another while the ball (the child) is thrown back
and forth with both sides fighting for control, and after a play has been called each side
argues with the referee (principal) to step in and recall the play in their favor" (Wallat &
Goldman, 1979, p. 32). It is time for meaningful dialogue to occur in striving for the
common goal of student achievement.
Attitude of School Administrators
It is the responsibility of the school administrator to take the lead in creating an
organizational context that will encourage parent involvement. Bauch and Goidring
(2000) discuss teacher work context that influence parent involvement. A supportive
school environment, a caring atmosphere, and requiring parent to volunteer, are identified
as important aspects of the work context. A supportive school environment has the
greatest influence on a school's provision of information to parents. A school that can
maintain administrative support for teachers in a way that allows them to attend to their
primary teaching tasks may have fewer difficulties in organizing and maintaining
communication with parent (Rosenholtz & Simpson, 1990, cited in Bauch, 2000).
There are school norms that do not support partnership between administrators
and teachers, teachers and teachers, administrators and parents, and teachers and parents.
Adult collaboration is rare in schools "The traditional approach for managing schools
emphasizes hierarchy, individualism and technology rather than dialogue, relationship,
and reciprocity (Swap, 1993, p.17). This tendency of individualism practiced in schools is
not supportive of home school relationships. Therefore administrators need to start
breaking down this barrier and create a thriving environment for parent involvement. The
natural tendency of parents and schools to be in conflict is downplayed by school
administrators by making a deliberate attempt to avoid instead of confronting and
resolving. As a result of this, "Schools organize public ritualistic occasions that do not
allow for real contact, negotiation, criticism bietween parents and teachers. Rather they
are institutionalized ways of establishing boundaries between insiders (teachers) and
interlopers (parents) under the guise of polite conversation and mature cooperation
Parent-Teachers Association meetings and open house rituals at the beginning of the
school year are contrived occasions that symbolically affirm and idealize parent-school
relationships but rarely provide the chance for authentic interactions" (Lightfoot, 1978,
p.27-28; Swap, 1993).
Schools as we know them will not effectively improve the process of parent
involvement unless we all begin the process of realistic evaluation and hard collaborative
work among all stakeholders in parent involvement. This problem must be attacked "head
on" so that programs can be effectively implemented and students our main customer can
gain maximum benefits.
Community Benefits
Community settings such as home, church, agencies, youth clubs, health centers,
libraries, health centers and civic clubs can be helpful in involving parents. There may be
times when parents are uneasy, unwilling or unable to be involved at school but are still
interested in the education of their children. There are also times when parents and
children can be best served through the collaborative effort of persons and services from
several institutions in the community. School personnel, parents and children can benefit
from these resources without having them located at the school (Swap, 1993).
When health centers conduct discussions or workshops on issues such as drug
abuse, teenage pregnancy, disaster preparedness, students and parents can benefit. Where
a school does not have facilities for activities such as competitive sports schools can
benefit from community playing fields. Community centers can be used to accommodate
parent -teacher meetings and conferences, family night and homework centers.
Many community agencies and businesses also contribute financial and human
resources in the form of knowledge and skills to schools. The school should also give
back to the community by offering needed services and teaching parents and students to
volunteer their services to help others and build the community.
The end result of parent involvement is for all stakeholders to be involved,
contribute and benefit from the partnership that promotes the academic and social growth
of children. Schools like to be located in good progressive communities and communities
flourish when its citizens succeed.
Aspirations and Expectations of Jamaican Parents
It is the aspiration and expectation of every Jamaican parent, regardless of
economic status, to see their children enter and excel academically in high school. This is
borne out in the effort parents place on preparing children during the primary years to sit
the National Grade Six Achievement Tests which is the qualifying examination for
entering high school. Parents begin by searching for what they regard as the "best"
primary school to send their children, even if this school is miles away from home, and
costs more in transportation and fees. A comparison of the number of students sitting the
GSAT in 2001 with the number of high school places (Ministry of Education Digest,
1999-2000) still shows that there are more students to be placed than vacancies existing
in high schools.
Parents have been known to conjure up stories about change in family
circumstances or change in residence to circumvent the ruling of the Ministry of
Education that students should attend the primary school closest to their homes. Parents
again use skillfully crafted means to get their children into the "best" high school when it
is time to prepare the application forms that the Ministry of Education will use to
determine the placement of children into high schools close to their homes. Many parents
are willing to pay extra fees for boarding and transportation to get their children into the
schools that they think are academically superior (Ministry of Education Records for
transfers, 2001.)
The Jamaica Daily Gleaner (2001, June 28), in an article on the results of the
GSAT examination for the academic year 200 1-2002 reported that 46,500 students sat the
examination and 35, 807 were placed in high schools. The article also highlighted the
comments of a proud parent whose son was successful with very high scores. All parents
would have liked their children placed in high schools, but because of limited space, this
is not possible. Parents anticipate that in the next five years these highly successful
students will improve progressively through the grades and complete high school passing
enough subjects to gain entry into a university or college, or gain meaningful
employment.
In the Jamaican context, there is great concern among school administrators,
educators, and parents as to why some students who performed so well in the qualifying
examination for high school, experience a decline in academic performance, and why the
same level of enthusiasm shown by parents in getting them into high school is not
maintained in the levels of parent involvement. In a recent study of parent involvement
Turbiville, Gardner, Umbarger, and Gutbrie (2000) reported the findings of a study done
by the US Department of Education in which it was reconfirmed that parent involvement
plays a role in school achievement. The study further confirmed that students whose
parents participated in school were more likely to receive A's on assignments, participate
in extracurricular activities, enjoy school and were less likely to repeat a grade or be
suspended or expelled. Epstein (2001) suggests that more research is needed on the
design and effects of strategies, and activities to help students and their families make the
successful transition from middle to high school. Further Epstein suggests that research to
determine who should undertake this task, feeder or receiver schools. While this is an
issue in the Jamaican context, there are many other factors that contribute to low parent
involvement. This study will seek to identify some of these factors.
Summavy
This chapter discussed the definition and history of parent involvement, research
done on various aspects of the topic over several decades, the benefits of parent
involvement to families and school, models of parent involvement, parent involvement in
Jamaican high schools, and affitudes of family, teachers, school aclniinistrators to parent
involvement. Parent involvement has been the focus of much research for decades and
has gone through many name changes. Today the focus is on creating a partnership
between family, school and community recognizing that partners are equals and that
teamwork among partners can accomplish more than individual efforts. Parent
involvement has now taken its place among the elements needed for "the effective
school" land now receives support from the Federal Government in the United States.
Researchers agree that students, parents educators, schools and community
benefit from effective programs of parent involvement, that parents involvement is
directly related to student achievement, and that both parents and educators recognize the
need for involvement. Parents are unsure of what their role should be. They have
different needs and interests, and are willing to be involved if parents are treated as equal
partners. However with the best of intentions parents have a variety of social, emotional,
economic and family situations that militate against involvement, and these must be
considered in program planning.
Educators and administrators recognize the need for getting parents involved.
They now need to take strategic actions to continually educate themselves on the various
issues and research findings on the subject and the various models or types of
involvement. Educators need to keep open communications with parents in planning
programs so as to facilitate parental needs, interest and special situations, take the lead in
involvement efforts, use models that are most appropriate to the mission, and vision, of
the school, student achievement, and family and community needs.
The concerns regarding parent involvement appear to be the same internationally.
More research on the subject is being done in the United States. Parents and teachers
wherever they live, have similar aspirations for the children they raise and teach. Students
wherever they go to school would like to achieve and need the help of parents and
teachers to do so. Parent involvement appears to decline as children progress through the
grades in high schools. High school is a critical time for parent involvement because of
transitional and physiological changes that puts adolescents at risk when they enter. In
Jamaicai'where high school places are in limited supply, and progress to high school and
beyond is linked to success in examinations, every effort should be made to involve
parents at all levels in a variety of involvement activities.
52
Chapter three includes the research methodology, which explains the selection of
subjects, instrumentation, procedure, pilot study and data analysis that was done for this
research.
CHAPTER THREE
Methodology
Introduction
This chapter describes the methodology used in the present study. A description
of the subjects under study and the method used for selecting them is included. In
addition, the instrument used for collecting the data will be discussed regarding content
and validity. Data collection and the procedure used to analyze the data are also
presented. The chapter concludes with the limitations of the chosen methodology.
Selection of Subjects
The subj ects for this study were parents with children in high schools in St.
Catherine, Jamaica during the 200 1-2002 academic years. Two hundred and twenty
parents with children in eight high schools in St. Catherine participated in the study. In
order to determine the parents who would participate the names of the eight high schools
were randomly selected from the total number of high schools in St. Catherine. Survey
instruments were placed in envelopes and sent to each of the eight selected schools to be
sent by students to parents. The high schools selected were Jonathan Grant, Jose' Marti,
Bog Walk, Dinthill, Ewarton, Charlemont, McGrath, and Guys Hill.
Instrumentation
The investigator developed a survey specifically for Jamaican parents using
Epstein and Salinas (1993) School and Family Partnershzp: Questionnaires for Teachers
and Parents as a guide, and tailored the questions to make them more applicable to the
Jamaican High School context. Some items were reworded using terms relevant to the
Jamaican high school system to-make them more easily understood by Jamaican the
parents.
The instrument consisted of five parts. Part one of the instrument included
demographic information about the relationship of the person completing the survey, to
the child, number of children the parent has attending the school, grade level of the
children and age of the parent. Parents were also asked whether or not they have had
classes in parenting adolescents, and the highest level of education they obtained.
Part two of the instrument consisted of 20 attitude statements that were assessed
using a Likert scale. The responses ranged from "strongly agree" (5) to "strongly
disagree" (1) with " undecided" at the midway point. These items were developed to
determine how parents feel about the child's school and being involved in the child's
education.
Part three consisted of 12 items on a three point scale for parents to indicate
practices that the school did well, those practices on which the school should do better
and those practices that the school never did in the past year. Also in this section parents
were asked to identify from a given list, o~fnine items, all the activities that they would
like to see the school improve in.
Part four consisted of 17 items. Eleven of these items were on a four point scale
for parents to indicate how they were involved in parent involvement practices at home,
at school' and in the community. Parents were asked to indicate if they were involved in
these practices once, few times, many times or never. Part four also included questions on
how well parents thought children were doing at school, how much time children spent
doing homework, how often children completed homework, how much help parents gave
with homework and whether or not parents could help on weekends. Parents were also
asked to indicate if they could spend more time if teachers showed them how to help
children with homework. Parents were also asked to identify from a list of 11 what
academic subj ect areas they would like to know more about in order to help their child. In
this section parents were given a list of parenting topics from which to choose the topics
they would like to learn more about in workshops. Parents were asked to identify those
cominunity services that they would also like to learn more about.
Part five consisted of 3 open-ended questions. In this section parents were asked
to indicate their concerns about what is happening with their child at school, what school
could do to help them with their child, and what they could do to help the school.
Validity
To improve the degree of validity special measure was taken to clearly indicate
directions for responding to each section, so that participants would be clear on how to
respond to items. Reading vocabulary and sentence strnctures were kept simple for
parents so that they would fully understand the questions being asked. Every effort was
made to avoid ambiguity and confusion. Participants were allowed as much time as was
needed to complete the survey. An effort was also made to avoid a systematic method of
questioning that would allow participants to respond without giving enough thought to
questions.
Data Collection
Four hundred copies of surveys were sent to a contact person in Jamaica who did
the distribution to the selected schools. Three hundred and sixty surveys were distributed
to the eight selected high schools (45 per school) and 40 were sent to a health facility in
the Township of Linstead where parents with children in these schools receive medical
treatment. This was done to increase the response rate and it was felt that since parents
had to sit and wait for long hours in this facility before getting medical attention, they
would have more time to respond. Care was taken not to duplicate the response of
parents. Parents who had already completed an instrument sent home from their child's
school were told not to participate again. The surveys were collected from the schools
and the health facility on the designated day. A total of two hundred and twenty parents
returned surveys to the schools, however parents who visited the health facility during the
period said they had already completed surveys sent home fr-om the schools.
Pilot Study
The pilot study of a draft of the instrument was done in August 2001. Ten parents
participated in the pilot study. The pilot study provided information on the attitudes of
parents towards parent involvement, what the school is doing to get parents involved,
what parents are doing to help their children and what additional help parents need.
Survey instrument was revised for use in the study based upon results of the pilot study.
Method of Analysis
The University of Wisconsin-Stout Computer User Support Services analyzed the
responses of the survey. The demographic section, Part one (demographic information)
was calculated for frequency and percent. Part two, Attitudes was calculated for mean
and standard deviation. Part three- School Involvement, items one to twelve was
computed for mean and standard deviation, and item thirteen for frequency. Part four -
Parent Involvement items one to eleven was computed for mean and standard deviation.
Sub scale of total means was also computed for Part four -parent involvement at home,
items one to six, parent involvement at school, items seven to nine and parent
involvement in the community, items ten and eleven. Part four, items 12 a, b, c and d on
homework was computed for frequency and percentages. Part four, items thirteen and
fourteen were computed for mean and standard deviation and items fifteen, sixteen and
seventeen for frequency. Part five (Open-ended questions) 18, 19 and 20 were to
determine parent's greatest concern about what is happening with their child at school,
what is the best thing that the school could do to help with their child and what they can
do to help the school respectively and were computed for frequency and percent.
Limitations
The distance of the participants from the investigator limited this survey. Issuing
and collection of surveys had to be delegated to a contact person, teachers and students.
Based on past experiences the investigator is aware that the larger the number of persons
involved in the process of issuing and collecting the more difficult the task and unlikely
the returns. The investigator would have preferred that the instruments be delivered
directly to parents at a parent teachers meeting but because of the distance and delay in
the postal service due to the September eleventh incident in United States, the package
arrived in Jamaica after these PTA meetings were held. Threat of hurricanes and flooding
due to these hurricanes also affected the distribution and collection of the survey. All
things considered the investigator was happy that two hundred and twenty of the surveys
were returned.
Chapter four describes the results of the survey followed by a discussion of the
findings. Summary, conclusion and recommendations are also presented in chapter five.
CHAPTER FOUR
Findings and Discussions
In this chapter, results of the survey given to parents with children in eight high
schools in St. Catherine will be reviewed. The survey consisted of four parts:
demographic information, attitudes of parents towards involvement in the education of
their children what schools have been doing to involved parents and what improvement
parents would like to see at the school, and how are parents involved with their child at
home at school and in the community, academic subject areas and parent involvement
topics, and homework behavior of parent and child. Survey also included three open-
ended questions on: parent concerns, the best thing the school could do to help parents
and what parents can do to help the school.
In this section demographic data, results of the survey and significant findings
will be reported. A discussion will follow. Two hundred and twenty parents participated
in the study.
Results
59
Table 1
Particzpating high schools and survey returns
High schools Frequency Valid %
Bog Walk High 38 17.3
Charlemont High 32 14.5
Dinthill 13 5.9
Ewarton High 36 16.4
Guys Hill High 32 14.5
Jonathan Grant 26 11.8
Jose Marti 19 8.6
McGrath High 24 10.9
Surveys were sent to eight high schools in St. Catherine to be delivered by
students to their parents. Of the eight schools that participated in the survey Bog Walk
and Ewarton High had the highest returns of 38 and 36 respectively. Charlemont and
Guys Hill High each returned 32. Jonathan Grant High returned 26, Mc Grath 24, and
Jose Marti'19. Dinthill returned of 13 surveys.
Demographic Characteristics
The purpose of the items in Part one was to obtain demographic information on
parent. Parents were asked to indicate, "Who is answering"? Number of children the
parent had at the school Parent were also asked to indicate the grade level of their
child(ren). The age range of the parent, whether or not they have had classes in parenting
adolescents and parent's highest level of education was also sought.
60
Table 2
Respondents
Items Frequency Valid %
Mother 159 72.6
Father 29 13.2
Stepmother 2 .9
Stepfather 2 .9
Grandparents 6 2.7
Guardian 13 5.9
Other relative 7 3.2
Other 1 .5
The person who had the most contact with the school about their child was asked
to answer the questions (see Table 1). Mothers were the largest group of respondents
(159) followed by fathers (29). Thirteen respondents (13) were guardians and one
respondent was neither a family member nor a guardian.
61
Table 3
Number of children
Item Frequency
One child 177
Two children 38
Three children 4
Four children 1
Participants were asked to comment of the number of children they had attending
the school. The largest number of respondents, 177 had one child. Thirty- eight (38)
respondents had two children attending. Only one respondent (1) had four children.
Table 4
Grade level of child(ren)
Items FrequencyYes No
Grade 7 15 204
Grade 8 31 188
Grade 9 8 211
Grade 10 114 105
Grade 11 87 132
Sixth Form 1 218
62
Parents were asked to indicate the grade level of their child. Table 4 shows that
the largest number of respondents, 114, had children in Grade 10. Eighty-seven (87)
respondents had children in Grade 11. One respondent had a child in sixth form.
Table 5
Age category of respondents
Items Frequency Valid %
20 -30 years 10 4.5
31 -40 years 107 48.6
41 -So0years 79 35.9
51 and over 23 10.5
Parents were asked to identify the age category that represented their age. The
largest group of respondents, 48.6% was in the 3 1-40 years age range. See Table 5.
Seventy-nine(79) respondents or 35.9% were in the 41-50-age range, twenty-three (23) or
10.5% were 51 and over. Ten respondents were in the 20-30-age range. Most respondents
were mature individuals.
Table 6
Classes in parenting
Classes on Parenting Frequency Valid %
Yes 39 18.2
No 175 81.8
63
Respondents were asked to indicate whether or not they had attended parenting
classes on how to understand and care for children. Table six shows that one hundred and
seventy five (175) respondents had never had classes in parenting. Thirty-nine (39)
respondents have had classes in parenting.
Table 7
Education level ofparents
Items Frequency Valid %
All Age School 89 41.4
High School Graduate 73 34.0
Some College Training 9 4.2
Vocational School Graduate 20 9.3
College Graduate 15 7
University Degree 9 4.2
Participants were asked to indicate their highest level of education. The largest
group of 89 respondents (41.4%) had All Age school education. Seventy-three (73)
respondents (34.0%) were high school graduates. The remaining 53 respondents (24.7%)
had post high school education.
64
Table 8
Attitude statements
ItemsAttitudes Mean S.D RO
This school views parents as Important partners in children's 4.26 .81 1education.
Parents should take classes in parent education. 4.15 .97 2
My child likes attending this high school. 4.14 1.04 3
I feel welcome at the high school my child attends. 4.13 279 4
I talk with teachers when I am concerned about my child's 4.13 .90 4achievement.
High school teachers should give more homework. 4.11 1.00 6
The high school my child attends is very good. 4.06 .81 7
High school teachers show interest in my child. 4.05 .84 8
This high school has an active P.T.A. 4.01 .93 9
Principals and teachers are always available to discuss my 3.95 1.13 10child's progress with me.
This high school is one of the best for parents and students. 3.56 1.03 11
I could help my child with schoolwork if the teachers gave me 3.56 1.11 11more guidance.
Most parents do not get a chance to talk to all the high school 3.47 1.35 13teachets who teach their children.
This high school is good at trying new programs to get parents 3.40 1.11 14involved.
I know many parents who help out at this high school 3.37 1.00 15
The community supports fund-raising activities at this high 3.31 1.08 16school
This high school does not offer much variety in activities for 3.30 1.20 17parents.
The school does not get much help from community members. 3.19 1.19 18
Parents are more involved at school when children are in lower 3.19 1.17 19grades
My child is not learning much at this high school. 1.96 1.09 20
Parents were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with
20 attitude statements Table 8 shows the mean, standard deviation and rank order on
attitude items. Nine items had mean scores ranging from 4.26 - 4.01: "This school views
parents as important partners in children's education", " Parents should take classes in
parent education", "My child likes attending this high school", "I feel welcome at the
high school my child attend", "I talk with teachers when I am concerned about my child's
achievement", "High school teachers should give more homework", "The high school my
child attends is very good", "High school teachers show interest in my child" and "This
high school has an active P.T.A."
Thus parents agreed or strongly agree with nine items at the 4.26 -4.01 range. Ten
items had mean scores ranging from 3.95 - 3.19 including "Principals and teachers are
always available to discuss my child's progress with me", "This high school is one of the
best for parents and students", " I could help my child with schoolwork if the teacher
gave me more guidance ", "Most parents do not get a chance to talk to all the high school
teachers who teach their children", "This high school is good at trying new programs to
get parents involved", "I know many parents who help out at this high school", "The
community supports fund-raising activities at this high school", "This high school does
not offer much variety in school activities for parents", "This school does not get much
help from community members", "Parents are more involved at school when children are
in the lower grades". Parents are somewhat undecided about these items. Parents
disagreed with the item "My child is not learning much at this high school"
66
Table 9
How schools involved parents
School School Schoolnever should did well
This past year the school has: did do X S.Dbetter
Told~me how my child is doing 5.0 % 13% 81.1% 2.76 .53
Helped me understand my child's 8.6% 25.8% 65.7% 2.57 .65development.
Sent me letters about school activities 15.8% 13.4% 70.8% 2.55 .75
Explained how grades are earned. 30.4% 23.6% 46.1% 2.16 ,86
Told me what skills my child needs to 36% 17.3% 46.7% 2.11 .91learn.
Had meeting with me about my child 41.4% 16.2% 42.4% 2.01 .91
Contacted me when my child is having 44% 11.2% 44.4% 2.00 .94problems
Asked me to help at school 50.8% 14.2% 35% 1.84 .92
Showed me how to check my child's 50% 17.5% 32.5% 1.82 .89homework.
Included parents on budget or 50.3% 22.9% 26.9% 1.77 .85curriculum committee
Informed me about community 55% 19.8% 25% 1.70 .85agencies that help children andfamilies.
Contacted me when my child is doing 57.1% 18.9% 24% 1.67 .84well
Respondents were asked to tell how well the school involved them in activities in
the past year. Table 9 shows the percentages of respondents who indicated whether
schools never did, could do better or did well on certain activities. The table also shows
the mean and standard deviation for each item. Parents were asked about the past year
because they were doing the survey at the beginning of a new academic year .The school
"told me how my child is doing"~, "sent me letters about school activities" and "helped me
understand my child's development scored 81.1%, 70.8% and 65.7% respectively.
Therefore schools were strong in these practices. The school "told me what skills my
child needs to learn", "explained how grades are earned", " contacted me when my child
is having problems", "had a meeting with me about my child", had between 46.7-42.4 %
of respondents indicating that schools involved them in those activities. This indicates
that schools are involving parents in these activities but need to do much more.
The school "asked me to help", "showed me how to check homework", "included
parents on budget and curriculum committees", "informed me about community agencies
that help children and families", and "explained how to check my child's homework" all
had over 50% of respondents indicating that the school did not involve them in these
activities. Over fifty-seven (57.1%) percent of respondents said the school did not contact
them when their child was doing well. This indicates that schools need to improve
communication with parents about their children's performance whether the performance
is negative or positive.
68
Table 10
Imlprovement parents would like to see at school
Improvements Frequency
Yes No
Attendance at P.T.A. 147 70
Parent volunteering 128 89
Parent communication with teachers about children's 158 59problems.
The amount of time between notices and parent 85 132involvement activities.
The guidance given to parents by teachers on how to 124 93help children with homework.
School facilities where parents can obtain help or 106 111volunteer.
The amount of time made available to parents to talk 116 101to teachers or principal about their child.
The school's efforts to contact me when my child is 143 74doing well or needs extra help.
The way schools involve parents in important 104 113decisions like budgeting or curriculum.
Respondents were asked to indicate what improvement they would like to see at
the school. The top three areas where parents would like to see improvement were
"parent communication with teachers about children's problems" (158 parents),
"attendance at P.T.A. (147 parents), and "the school's effort to contact me when my child
*is doing well or needs extra help"(143 parents) Parents would also like to see
improvement in "parent volunteering", "guidance given to parents by teachers on how to
69
help children with homework", and "school facilities where parents can obtain help or
volunteer. The least popular response to the improvement parents would like to see at
school was "the amount of time between notices and parent involvement activities". One
hundred and thirty two (132) parents said no to improvement in this area. This seems to
indicate that schools communicate well with parents in some ways such as in inviting
them to school activities but need to improve in other ways such as communicating with
parents about student's progress and how to help students with homework.
Table 11
Parent involvement at home
Items Mean S.D.
Talked to my high schoolchild about school 3.70 .71
Helped my child with homework 3.01 1.02
Helped my child in planning and managing 3.18 1.06time
Check to see if my child had done homework 3.39 .93
Talked with my child about the importance of 3.83 .55school
Talked to my child about the future, career and 3.76 .59work
Parents were asked to identify activities that they did with their children at home.
''Talked with my child about how important school is'', ''talked to my child about the
future, career and work" and "Talked to my child about school" were the top three
activities with the mean scores ranging from 3.83 - 3.70 that parents were involved in at
70
home with their children. " Helping my child with homework" ranked the lowest, 3.01,
among the activities parents were involved in at home with their children. See Table 11.
Table 12
Parent involvement at school
Items Mean S.D.
Talked to my child's Form Teacher in person or by telephone. 2.47 1.07
Attended PTA meeting 3.00 .94
Attended special events at my child's school 2.40 1.09
Table 12 shows that the top item that parents were involved in at school was
attending P.T.A meetings. Talking to their child's teacher in person or on the telephone
and attending special events at the child's school were done less often.
Table 13
Parent involvement in the community
Items Mean S.D.
Accompanied my child to the library 1.43 .87
Attended· a community event with my child 2.40 1.14
Table 13 shows that parents are not very involved with their children in the
community. Both items in this category had means ranging from 2.40 -1.43. Parents
accompanying children to the library especially on weekends in Jamaica is a valuable
71
involvement activity since most well equipped libraries miles away from some homes
and may require special transportation arrangements.
Table 14
About homework. Child time spent on homework on school days
Item Frequency Valid %
None 10 4.7
30 minutes 38 17.7
1-2 hours 130 60.5
3-4 hours 37 17.2
Parents were asked about the amount of time their child spent doing homework on
school days. Of the 215 parents who responded to this question (Table 14), 130 parents
(60.5%) said their child spent 1-2 hours doing homework. Ten parents (4.7%) said their
child spent no time doing homework on school days.
Table 15
Parents time spent on homework
Time Spent Frequency Valid %
None 40 18.8
Less than 1 hour 97 45.5
1-2 hours 65 30.5
3-4 hours 11 5.2
72
Parents were asked how much time they spend helping their child with
homework. Of the 213 respondents, 97 spent less than an hour (45.5%) and 65 spent 1-2
hours (30.5%). Forty parents (18.8%) spent no time helping their child with homework.
Table 16
Time parents could spend if teacher showed them how to help
Time Frequency Valid %
30 minutes 5 3.8
45 minutes 4 3.0
i hour 15 11.3
75 minutes 6 4.5
90 minutes 50 37.6
2 hours 19 8.6
180 minutes 5 3.8
210 minutes 20 15.0
Parents were asked to indicate the amount of time they could spend helping their
child with homework if the teacher showed them how to help. The top 50 parents,
(3 7.6%) said they could help for ninety minutes. Fifteen parents (15) could help for 1
hour, 19 for 2 hours and 20 for 3-4 hours. Thus more parents are willing to spend time
helping their child if they are shown how to do so.
73
Table 17
Parents who can help on weekends
Items Frequency Valid %
Yes 150 69.1
No 61 28.1
Sometimes 6 2.8
Parents were asked if they had time to help with homework on weekends. The top
number of 150 parents (69.1%) said they could help on weekends while 61 parents
(28.1%) said they could not help. The group of parents who are unable to help is larger
than the group that spent no time at all in Tablel5. Some of these parents may be working
on weekends or are incapable of helping.
Table 18
Child 's performance at high school
Item Mean S.D.
Top student 20 9.3
Good 89 41.4
Average 64 29.8
Fair 33 15.3
Poor 9 4.2
74
Parents were asked to indicate how their child was doing at school. Twenty
percent (20%) of parents said they had top students. One hundred and fifty-three parents
said their children were average or good. Forty-two parents said children were doing
fairly or poor (19.5%). See Table 18.
Table 19
How often child completes homework?
Item Frequency Valid %
Always 106 48.6
Most of the time 81 37.2
Sometimes 24 11.0
Rarely 7 3.2
Parents were asked how often their high school child completes homework. One
hundred and six (106) parents indicated that children always did homework. Eighty one
(81) parents indicated that their child did homework most of the time, while 3 1 parents
said their child did homework sometimes or rarely.
75
Table 20
Subjects parents would like to learn more about
Subj ects Frequency Valid %
Yes No Yes No
Agriculture 33 186 15.1 84.9
Business Subjects 54 165 24.7 75.3
Computer Science 116 103 53.0 47.0
English Language 105 114 47.9 52.1
Home Economics 94 125 42.9 57.1
Industrial Education 29 190 13.2 86.8
Math 165 54 75.3 24.7
Resource & Technology 48 171 21.9 78.1
Science Subjects 88 131 40.2 59.8
Social Studies 62 157 28.3 77.1
Study Skills 38 18·1 17.4 82.6
Parents were asked to indicate what subjects they would like to learn more about
so that they can help their child. The top three subj ects that parents wanted help with
were computer science, English Language and math, 116,105 andl6S parents
respectively. Some parents to a lesser degree needed help with social studies and science.
Fewer parents requested help in the technical vocational subjects such as agriculture,
business subjects, home economics, industrial education and resource and technology.
76
Students usually enjoy these subjects, have less complaints and examination results are
usually high. On the other hand English Language and Mathematics are compulsory for
further training or employment and examination results in these subjects are usually
lower. Parents are echoing the concerns of their children.
Table 21
Parents work~shop interest
Topics Frequency
Yes No
How adolescents develop 48 171
How teens behave 99 120
How to discipline teens 92 127
How to help students choose careers 115 104
Raising children as single parents 71 148
Helping children to study and take 136 83tests
Undejrstanding high school 71 148
Table 18 shows that the top two topics that parents would like to learn about were
" helping children to study and take tests", (136 parents) and "How to help students
*choose careers", (115 parents). Parents also showed interest in "How teens behave" (99
parents) and "How to discipline teens"(92 parents). How adolescents develop was the
least popular topic among parents. However parents had already indicated that the school
was helping them to understand their child's development.
Parents also indicated their interest in other topics such as sex education,
counseling children, and drug abuse.
77
Table 22
Community services parent would like to know more about
Community Services Frequency
YES NO
Health care for teens and families 87 132
Family Counseling 114 105
Job training for parents and teens 103 116
Community service teens can do 85 124
Parenting classes 78 141
After school tutoring 64 155
After school clubs and skills training 95 124
Parents were asked to indicate what community services they would like to know
more about so that they can help their children. Table 19 shows that parents were most
interested in family counseling (1 14 Parents) and job training for parents and teens (103
parents). There was also interest in after school clubs and skills training and health care
for teens and families. Although parents expressed concerns about academic progress of
students and Table 18 indicate that there is a need, many parents did not indicate interest
in after school tutoring. After school hours is not the concern since parents showed
interest in after school clubs' and skills training. The investigator may have used a term
that was not readily understood by all parents, or parent may have made a choice between
the two after school activities suggested.
78
Open-Ended Questions
The open-ended questions asked parents to explain their greatest concerns about
what is happening with their child at school, the best thing that the school could do to
help them with their child and one thing that they could do to help the school.
Table 23
Parent greatest concern about what is happening at school
Concerns Frequency Valid %
Students academic performance, progress, success 40 27.2
Curriculum variety, availability and quality of 16 11instructions.
School/child security, safety and protection 14 9.5
Student discipline 14 9.5
Students' attitude and interest towards schoolwork 13 8.8
Peer pressure 9 6.1
Equal treatment and individual attention for slow 7 4.8students
School conflicts (student / student, student / teacher) 7 4.8
Economic difficulties (fees, books, traveling, meals.) 6 4.1
Student counseling needs (career, drugs, sexual 6 4.1behavior)
Late school hours 4 2.7
Assigning and correcting of homework 4 2.7
No concerns- children are doing well 4 2.7
How to help child improve grades 3 2
Question eighteen provided parents with an opportunity for them to express ideas
about topics in parenting skills and child development that were of concern to them. One
hundred and forty seven parents responded to this question and 27.2% (see Table 23) of
them were concerned about student academic performance, progress and success. Eleven
percent (11%) of parents were concerned about variety in the curriculum, availability and
quality of instructions. Fourteen parents expressed concerned about the safety of the
school and their children. Student discipline, attitude towards schoolwork and peer
pressure were the concerns of 36 parents. Thirteen parents were concerned about school
conflicts and the need for more counseling programs. This indicates that parents were
aware that low performance is not always as a result of the quality of curriculum
instructions. A small percentage (2.7) of parents are quite satisfied with what is
happening at school and have no concerns. This indicates that the majority of parents
were concerned about the education of their children.
80
Table 24
Things parents want school to do to help them with their child
Responses Frequency Valid %
Improve student performance by assigning and checking homework, 34 24offering extra classes, tutoring and improve teacher attendance
Provide financial assistance by reducing or keeping school fees constant, 19 13.4helping with overseas examination fees, traveling and medical expensesand meals.
Expand curriculum to include more subjects, computer studies for all 14 10students, sixth form and community college for students who cannot findjobs or want to study further.
Provide more counseling and motivational talks: to students on how to 13 9.2behave and improve self-esteem and how to communicate with parents,and for parents on how to council children.
Provide more school and community based activities in parenting and skill 11 7.7development for parents.
Improve quantity of teachers and quality of instructions in compulsory 8 5.6subject areas
Build additional classrooms, and laboratories upgrade teaching facilities 8 5.6and pay teachers more salary.
Improve relationship and communication between teachers and parents by 7 4.9contacting parents about children's progress and behavior.
Provide scholarships, part-time and summer employment, and job 6 4.2placement for students
Provide career education and allow students to choose the vocational area 6 4.2and subjects that they want to do.
Enter students into competitions in national debates, school challenge quiz, 5 3.5speech and drama festivals and sports to improve school's image.
Continue to do well 5 3.5
Increase book supply for rental and recommend only books that students 3 2.1will use.
Adjust shift hours so students can get home early 3 2.1
Question nineteen supplied additional information on practices that parent think
schools should add to guide their involvement. These comments were intended to provide
examples and perspectives useful in interpreting data collected on other questions on the
survey. One hundred and forty two parents responded to this question.
As reflected in Table 24, it is clear that parents (34 respondents) were interested
in the academic progress of their children and wanted the school to focus heavily on this
area. Nineteen parents needed financial help of some form from the school. Furthermore,
one parent expressed concern that her child was doing well academically and would do
well in the overseas examination, but she would need financial help in paying the
examination fees. Twenty-seven respondents wanted expansion in the curriculum and
guidance and counseling programs. The need for curriculum to be expanded to include
sixth form or community college, for schools to guide students in career choices yet
allowing them to make their final decisions, assist in sunm-er jobs and job placement
after graduation were ways that parents felt that the school could continue to contribute to
students success. Eleven respondents wanted the school to provide more school-
community based activities in parenting and skill development.
Parents recognized that for students to do well teachers must be available, and
instructions and learning environment need to be of good quality. Sixteen respondents
wanted the school to do more in these areas. Seven respondents wanted the school to
improve the relationship between parents and teachers. Twelve respondents wanted the
school to provide career education for students and allow students to make their own
decisions about the programs and subjects they would like to take.
82
Five respondents would like the school to involve students in co-curricular
activities that would extend their learning and improve the image of the school. Five felt
the schools were doing just fine, three were concerned about the availability and cost of
books. Three respondents were concerned about school hours and safety of children on
the late shift.
Table 25
How parents can help the school
How Parents Can Help Frequency Valid %
Show more interest and become actively involved in Parents 55 36.6Teachers Association
Volunteer time, skills and services to improve school premises, 21 14.6buildings, security, help teachers and help with school projects.
Be available to help in whatever way school needs help 17 11.3
Form active parent group to develop school-parent community 14 9.3link, encourage other parents to get involve to improve studentsdiscipline, encourage and help teachers, support curriculumactivities by helping slow readers and get rid of complacentteachers.
Help with fund raising. 13 8.6
Make monetary contribution to building fund and school bus. 10 6.6
Make material contribution to building projects. 7 4.6
Can do nothing because I have no money. 7 4.6
Visit school more often. 2 1.3
Encourage present students to get more involved in school 2 1.3activities and encourage students when they graduate to join paststudents association.
Pay school fees promptly. 2 1.3
One hundred and fifty parents responded to question 20. "What is one thing you
could do to help this high school" Responses to this question should contribute to the
understanding of any of the other questions asked previously based on the content of the
comments given. Responses were grouped for easy reporting. The largest group of
respondents: 55 parents, see Table 25, overwhelmingly said they could help the school by
being more actively involved in parent teachers association meetings and activities. In
some cases respondents were apologetic that they were not as involved as they knew they
should Twenty one respondents were willing to help the school by volunteering time and
skills to improve the school premises, buildings, assist with projects and assist teachers.
Seventeen respondents said they could help in whatever way the school needed help. This
indicated that some parents are not exactly sure how they can help the school or what
help the school needs. This supports earlier discussion that parents want to be involved
but would like the school to take the lead in involvement activities and tell them how they
should.
Fourteen respondents were willing to form active parent group to help school in
forming school- family- community link, encourage other parents to participate, improve
discipline and help teachers. Thirteen were willing to help with fund raising, seventeen
with cash or material contribution to help schools with transportation and building
proj ects,
Seven respondents said they could not help because they had no money. It would
appear that some parents are under the impression that only monetary help is needed or
can be given. These parents need to be helped to understand the many other ways they
can work with, and help schools. Two respondents said they could help by visiting school
more often, two would encourage present and past students to be more involved in school
activities and two would pay fees more promptly
Although parents were very outright in what they wanted the school to do to
improve students performance many of them did not indicate that they were aware that
schools finance some programs and projects chiefly from the school fees that are paid,
therefore they have an obligation to pay these fees or apply for government assistance in
paying them promptly. Schools therefore need to communicate with parents and get them
involved and informed about budgetary matters and decision making so that they know
how programs are financed.
85
Table 26
Sign ~i cant dff~erences in attitudes, parent involvement, homework assistance and
education level ofparents
Items AAX HSX PSX df F Sig.
AttitudesHigh school teachers 4.20 3.86 4.04 2,201 3.282 .05show interest in mychild.
3.15 3.16 3.72 2,190 3.928 .05High school does notoffer much variety inschool activities forparents. 4.38 3.90 4.14 2,197 4.784 .01
Parents should takeclasses in parenteducation.Parent InvolvementTalked with my child 4.00 3.85 3.73 2,198 4.066 .05about how importantschool is.
2.13 2.17 2.53 2,205 4.466 .05How much time doesparent spend helpingchild with homework?
2.47 2.70 2.87 2,208 3.221 .05How is your childdoing at school?
Data was further computed to determine if there were significant differences
between parent education level, parent attitude, parent involvement and parent assistance
with homework. Parents were grouped into three education levels, All Age education
(AA), High School education (HS), and Post Secondary education (PS). A One Way
ANOVA with a Student Newman-Keuls Multiple Range Test was computed on items 1-
20 (Part 11, Attitudes), items 1-11, (Part IV, Parent involvement) and items 12a, 12b, 13
and 14 (Par IV, Homework), using parent level of education as the independent variable.
Table 26 shows that there were three significant differences in attitudes based on
parental education level. With regard to the following attitude statement, "High school
teachers show interest in my child" a significant difference was found (F=3 .282). This
statement was significant at the .05 level. Using the Newman-Keuls comparison test it
was found that parents who felt that high school teachers showed interest in their child
were more likely to have All Age school education (X=4.200) than parents with High
School education (X=3.86). Therefore parents with All Age School education are
significantly different from parents with High School education.
On the item "High school does not offer much variety in activities for parents." A
significant difference was found (F=3.928). This was significant at the .05 level. Using
the Student Newman-Keuls comparison test, it was found that parents who felt that the
school did not offer much variety in activities for parents were more likely to have had
Post Secondary education (X=3.72) than High School education (X=3.16 or parents with
All Age School education (X=3.15). On the attitude item, "Parents should take classes in
parent education" a significant difference was found (F=4.784) significant at the .01
level. Using the Student Newman-Keuls comparison test it was found that participants
who felt that parents should take classes in parent education were more likely to have had
All Age School education (X=4.38) than Post Secondary education (X=4.14).
Table 26 also shows that there were significant differences on parent involvement.
On the parent involvement statement, "Talked to my child about how important school
is," (F=4.066) was significant at the .05 level. Using the Student Newman-Keuls
comparison test it was found that parents with Post Secondary education were more
likely to talk to their child about the importance of school (X=4.00) than parents with
High School education (X=3.85) or those parents with All Age School education
(X=3 .73).
Table 26 also shows that there were significant differences in "How much time
parents spent helping their child", with regards to homework (F=4.466). This was
significant at the .05 level. Using the Student Newman-Keuls comparison test it was
found that parents with Post Secondary education seemed to have spent more time
helping their child with homework (X=2.53) than parents with High School education
(X=2.17) or parents with All Age School education (X=2.13).
On the question regarding their child's progress, a difference was found "How is
your child doing in school" (F=3.221) significant at the .05 level. Using the Newman-
Keuls comparison test, it was found that the children with parents who had Post
Secondary education were doing better (X=2.87) than children whose parents had High
School education (X=2.70) or All Age School education (X=2.47).
As demonstrated in Table 26 significant differences were found among parents
with different educational levels on parent attitudes, parent involvement, amount of help
parents gave with homework, and how well children were doing in school.
Discussion
The purpose of the study was to determine the attitude of Jamaican parent towards
parent involvement in the education of their high school children. To determine the types
of involvement activities that schools provide and the improvement in involvement that
parents would like to see at school. To determine parent's levels of involvement at
school, home, conmunity, helping with homework, and what help parents would need so
they can help their children more. The survey was done with parents who have children
in eight high schools in St. Catherine Jamaica during the Fall of 2001.
There was a 55% return on this survey. Mothers represented the largest group of
72.6%. The number of parents with one child at school represented 80.5%. The largest
group of parents 52.1% had children in Grade 10 followed by 39.7 in Grade 11i. The
grade levels least represented were Grade 7 with 15 parents (6.8%) and 6 th Form
represented by I parent. The largest group, the 31-40 age category, was represented by
48.9% parents. Parents who had not had a class in parenting represented 8 1.8%. Parents
with All Age School Education was 41.4%, High school 34% and 24.7% for all other
categories of post high school education.
Several researchers agree that parent involvement in the education of their
children is more effective if there is a partnership between parents, school and
community Epstein, 2001; Epstein & Salinas; 1993; Swap,1987). The partnership is most
effective when parents are treated as equal partners, when schools recognize that parents
want to be involved, and that parents have different interest and needs. Parents expect
teachers to take the lead in planning effective involvement activities that can contribute to
the educational and social growth of students. All stakeholders in education, parents,
teachers, school administrators and students can benefit from the parent, school
community partnership.
Parent attitude in relation to involvement in their child's education was reflected
in the attitude statements in Part two of the survey. Parents agreed or strongly agree
ranging from a mean of 4.01-4.26 that "The school their child attends is good", "Teachers
show interest in their child," "They feel welcome at the school", "The school has active
P.T.A", "Teachers should give more homework", "Their Child likes attending school",
"Parents should take classes in parent education", "School views parents as partners in
child's education" and that. "Parents talk with teachers about child's achievement".
These scores tend to indicate that parents have a positive attitude towards these items.
Ten other attitude items ranged from a mean of 1.96-3.95. which indicates that parents
are somewhat undecided about the items related to volunteering at school, how much
their child is learning at the school, the schools effort to try new involvement programs,
how good the school is for parents and children, how much parents are able to talk to the
teachers who teach their children, the levels at which parents are most involved, the
amount of time principals and teachers are available for discussions about children and
how much the child is learning at school.
Parents' opinions about how the schools involved them, indicate that the schools
have been doing well at engaging them in activities related to parenting and
communicating. However the schools need to do better or start involving parents in
learning at home, volunteering, decision-making and collaborating with the community.
Over 50% of parents in all instances felt that the school did not ask them to volunteer at
school, did not explain how they should check homework, did not include them in vital
decisions for school improvement and did not provide information on community
services. Fifty-seven (57%) percent of parents said the school did not contact them if
their child did something well or improved at school. This seems to indicate that although
the schools did well on communicating with parents, schools need to broaden the areas of
communication in terms of student performance. Over 40% of parents indicated that
schools did, or did not, contact them if their child was having problems, or have
individual parent- teacher conference with them. Schools therefore need to improve in
these areas.
More than 50% of parents who participated indicate that they would like to see
improvement in the areas of attendance at P.T.A meetings, parent volunteering, parent
communication with teachers. Parents also indicated that they would like improvement in
the amount of guidance given to parents by teachers, time available for parents to talk to
teachers and principals, and the school's effort to contact parents when their child is
doing well or need extra help.
In terms of parent involvement, parents were more involved at home than at
school or in the community Parents were also more involved by talking to their children
about the importance of school and child's future, career and work. Parents were less
involved at school and in the community. This could be as a result of schools not
planning activities that interest parents or that are community related. Schools may not be
communicating enough with parents about these activities. The personal, family and or
work situations of parents may have affected their ability to be involved.
Regarding parent involvement with homework, 40 parents offered no help at all,
97 offered less than an hour and 65 offered 1-2 hours. The amount of time that parents
could help if teachers showed them how to, did not increase, which seems to indicate that
while parents can encourage their children to do well in school they may not be
academically able to help them with schoolwork.
Parents indicated that they would like to learn more about computer science,
English Language and mathematics in order to help their child. Fewer parents wanted to
learn more about the Technical Vocational subjects in order to help their child. This
could be because students do not always need the technical subjects for entry into
university which is priority for parents.
When students fail to be successful in the academics, parental interest in the
technical, vocational subjects tends to increase. Parents now realize that students need
skills to gain employment or to enter colleges offering technical programs. These
colleges also require students to be successful in the English Language examination in
order to qualifyj for entry. Students are also more successful in examinations in the
technical subjects. Therefore, parents may be requesting help in areas where students
seem to need the help most. Parents also need workshops on how to discipline teens, how
to help teens choose careers and how to help children study and take tests.
Parents are concerned about their children's academic progress. Students who
cannot take tests well may not be successful in their examinations. Many parents are
disturbed when students are unsuccessful in their examinations and tend to feel that
students made the wrong career choices. Parents also mentioned their concerns about
career choices in the open -ended questions that were asked. Parents felt that teachers
should allow students to choose the subjects they want to do. While this is good, school
administrators and teachers help in placing students into career groups based on students'
performance in the earlier grades, the number of students a particular career area can
accommodate, requirements for further training and the availability of jobs in the career
areas.
Schools need to involve parents in the process of career choice so that parents
become aware of the problems and concerns. In recent years in Jamaica, there is a
tendency for most students and their parents to select careers in the business education
field . However this sector is not doing well at this time. Many businesses are closing and
students are less successful in subjects like accounts, typing and word processing that are
in great demand. As a result of this situation, many students are out of school and are
unqualified to enter college or find jobs.
Parents indicated a greater need for community services such as family
counseling, and job and skill training. Since 41.4% of the parents who participated in the
survey had All Age school Education, it would appear that these parents are in need of
skill training that would help them to finance their children's education. Schools need to
be aware of the communities in which they operate and help to empower parents through
training. In a true partnership schools can help to train parents and parents can give back
to the schools in ways that will make the school more effective in catering to the needs of
students
The study also indicated that there were significant differences in parent levels of
education, parent attitudes to involvement and the school their child attends, parent
involvement and assistance with homework. The attitude statements "high school
teachers show interest in my child," "High school does not offer much variety in
activities for parents" were significant at the .05 level. Parents with All Age school
education were more likely to feel that school showed interest than were parents with
way High school or Post Secondary education. Parents with Post Secondary education
were more likely to feel that the school did not offer much variety in activities for parents
than were parents with high school education or All Age school education. Parents should
take classes in parent education was significant at the .ol level. Parents with All Age
school education were more likely to feel that they should take classes than parents with
Post Secondary education.
Parents who talked to their child about how important school is was significant at
the .05 level. Parents with Post Secondary education were more likely to talk to their
child than did parents with high school or all age education. The amount of time parents
spent helping children with homework was also significant at the .05 level. Parents with
Post Secondary education appeared to spend more time helping with homework than did
parents with high school or all age school education. Children of parents with Post
Secondary education were also doing better at school than children whose parents had
high school or all age school education. This item was significant at the .05 level.
CHAPTER FIVE
Summary, Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations
This final chapter contains a review of the study of parent involvement in the
education of children in high schools in St. Catherine, Jamaica. The chapter summarizes
the statement of the problem, and data analysis. The conclusions based on the findings,
recommendations for future research, and educational implications are also included in
this chapter.
The purpose of the study was to determine the attitudes of Jamaican parents to
parent involvement in the education of their children at high school as measured by a
survey of parents with children in high schools in St. Catherine, Jamaica.
The study focused on the following objectives:
1. To determine the affitudes of parents towards involvement and the high school
their child attends.
2. To determine what schools are presently doing to involve parents and how parents
think schools can improve in their practices to involve them.
3. To determine parental involvement at home, at school and in the community, the
amount of time parents spend helping their high school children with homework,
and what help parents would need so as to help their children more.
4. To examine differences in parents attitudes, parents involvement and parental
assistance with homework based on the educational level of parent.
The participants in the study were parents with children in selected high schools
in St. Catherine, Jamaica. Parents were asked to volunteer as participants in the study. A
pilot study of a draft of the survey instrument was done in August 2001. The survey
instrument was revised based upon the results of the pilot study, and administered in the
fall of 2001. The investigator developed the survey, specifically for Jamaican parents,
using Epstein and Salinas (1993) School and family partnership questionnaires for
parents as a guide and tailoring the questions to make them more applicable to parents in
the Jamaican high school context.
The instrument consisted of five parts. Part 1 requested demographic information
on the parent, number of children attending high school, grade level of child, age of
parent, whether or not parents had classes in parent education and the educational level of
parents. Part 11 consisted of 20 attitude statements which were responded to using a 1-5
Likert Continuum Scale to determine parental views about the high schools their children .
attend. Part III examined how schools were doing at involving parents. This part
consisted of 12 items for parents to indicate, "what schools are doing well", "what
schools need to improve on" and "what schools have never done" as well as one question
for parents to identify areas in which they would like to see the school improve. Part IV
sought to determine how parents were involved in the education of their children at
home, at school and in the community, amount of time parents spent helping with
homework and subjects and topics in parent education that parents would like to learn
more about so that they can help their children. Part V consisted of 3 open-ended
questions to allow parents to express ''their greatest concerns about what is happening at
school", " the best thing the school could do to help them" and " one thing they could do
to help the school". These open ended questions were included to provide parents with
the opportunity to express ideas about topics and parenting skills, and practices that
schools should add to guide their involvement. The information given by parents to these
questions would also contribute to the understanding of the other question asked
previously, based on the content of the comments given.
Two hundred and twenty parents responded to the survey. The Computer
Services at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, Wisconsin, did the tabulation
and analysis of the survey. In Part I demographics, frequency count and percentages were
computed for all items. In Part II, Attitudes towards parent involvement, was computed
for frequency counts, percentages, mean and standard deviation. On Part III, items 1-12
were computed for frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation and item 13 for
frequency count and percentages. Part IV, parent involvement, was computed for
frequency, percentages, mean, median and standard deviation for the total group of
respondents, frequency count and percentages on item 12 (a-b), frequency count,
percentages, mean, median and standard deviation on item 12c for total group of
respondents, frequency count and percentages for iteml2d, frequency count, percentages
mean and standard deviation for items 13 and 14, frequency count and percentages for
item 15(a-l), 16(a-h) and 17 (a-h). Part V, open-ended questions were compiled and
categorized.
The data was further computed to determine if there were significant differences
based on parent educational levels, parent attitudes, parent involvement and parent
assistance with homework. This was done by grouping parents into three educational
levels (All Age Education, High School Education and Post Secondary Education) and
computing a One Way ANO VA, with a Student Newman - Keuls Multiple Range Test on
Part I, items 1-20, Attitudes, Part IV items 1-11 parent involvement, and items 12a, 12b,
13 and 14, homework, using parent levels of education as the independent variable.
There was a 55% return on this survey. Mothers represented 72.6% of
respondents. The number of parents with 1 child at high school represented 80.5%. The
largest group of parents 52.1% had children in grades 10 and 1 1. The 3 1- 40-age category
was represented by 48.9% of parents. Parents who had no classes in parenting were
8 1.8%. Parents with All Age School Education were 41.4%, High School 34% and all
other categories of post Secondary Education were 24.7%.
Research Objective]I: To determine the attitude of Jamaican parents towards
parent involvement in education and the high school their child attends.
Parents attitudes in relation to involvement in their children's education was
reflected in the attitude statements in Part II. Parents agreed or strongly agreed with 45%
of these statements ranging from a mean of 4.01-4.26 "This school views parents as
important partners in children's' education (X= 4.26). "Parents should take classes in
parent education" (X= 4.15) "My child likes attending this high school"(X = 4.14)1I talk
with teachers when I am concerned about my child's achievement"(X =4.13) "I feel
welcome at the high school my child attends" (X=4. 13). "High school teachers should
give more homework" (X=4. 11). "The high school my child attends is very good"
(X=4.06) "High school teachers show interest in my child" (X=4.05) "This high school
has an active P.T.A. (X=4.01) These scores tend to indicate that parents had positive
attitude towards the school. Fifty percent (50%) of items had means ranging from 3.19-
3.95. This tends to indicate that parents were somewhat undecided about the items related
to volunteering at school, how much child is leamning at school, the school's effort to try
new programs to involve parents, how good the school is for parents and children, the
levels at which parents are most involved, the amount of time principals and teachers are
available for discussion with parents about children and how much the child is learning at
school. One item "My child is not learning much at this high school" had a mean of 1.96.
Objective 2. To determine what schools are presently doing to involve parents
and how parents would like to see schools improve their involvement practices.
Parents were asked to indicate whether the school "never did", "should do better"
or"did well at involving them in given practices on a 3 point scale. Over 58% of items on
practices had mean scores ranging from 2.00-2.76. Over 50% of parents felt that the
school did not ask them to volunteer at school, did not explain how they should check
homework, did not include them in vital decisions for school improvement and did not
provide information on community services that help children and families. Fifty-seven
percent of parents said the school did not contact them if their child did something well or
improved at school or if the child was having problems. This seems to indicate that
although the schools did well at communicating with parents, schools need to do better
by including information on students when they are doing well. Fifty percent of parents
said the school never showed them how to check their child's homework. Since teachers
are usually concerned about large classes and parents are concerned about the amount of
homework given and home work not corrected (open-ended questions) then teaching
parents how to help and how to check homework will help teachers, parents and students.
Parents were asked to indicate areas where the school needs to improve. More
than 50% of parents would like to see improvement in attendance at P.T.A. meetings,
parent volunteering, parent communication with teachers, the amount of guidance given
to parents by teachers, time available for parents to talk to teachers and principals and the
school's effort to contact them when their child is doing well or need extra help.
Objective 3. To determine parent involvement at home, at school and in the
community, the amount of time parents spend helping their high school children with
homework and what help parents would need in order to be of more help to children.
Parents were asked to indicate how involved they were in certain practices at
home, at school and in the community. Concerning parent involvement at home, 80.6%
of parents said they talked to their children about school many times, 61.1% checked
many times to see if their children had done homework, 88.8% talked many times with
children about how important school is, and 82.4% talked to children many times about
future, career and work. Concerning involvement at school, 41.1% talked to teachers few
times in person or by telephone about their child, 46.4% attended P.T.A. meetings a few
times and 35.5% attended special events at their child's school few times while 30% of
parents never attended any events.
In terms of community, (78%) of parents never accompanied their child to the
library. Over thirty six percent (36.6) of parents had attended community events with
their child while 34.2% never did. Regarding homework, 60.5% of parents said their
children spent 1-2 hours doing homework. Over forty five percent 45.5%) of parents
spent less than 1 hour, 30.5% spent 1-2 hours, and 18% spent no time at all helping their
children with homework. All parents indicated that they were willing to spend some time
helping with homework if the teacher showed them how to help. Over seventy nine
percent (79.8%of parents were willing to spend over ihour and up to 5 hours helping
children with homework. Almost 70% Of parents were willing to help on weekends.
Twenty parents 9.3% said their children are top students, 41 .4%were good students,
29.1% were average, and the remainder fair or poor. Forty eight percent of parents said
100
their children always completed homework and 37.2% said children completed
homework most of the time.
Parents identified subjects that they would like to learn more about. The major
subjects identified were Mathematics 75.3%, Computer Studies 53% and English
Language 47.9%. Fewer parents wanted to know about the technical Vocational Subj ects
so they could help their children. Parents requested workshops on how to discipline teens,
how to help teens choose careers, study and take tests. Parents are very concerned about
the academic progress of their children.
Parents also said they would like to learn more about community services like
family counseling and job and skill training. Since 41.4% of parents had only All Age
School education, skill training would help them financially to help their children.
Schools need to be aware of all the services available in the communities in which they
are located and help parents to access these services so that parents can help themselves
and help their children.
In the open-ended questions parents provided more insight into their concerns.
One hundred and forty seven parents responded to the question about their greatest
concern. Concerns were grouped to arrive at a list of 14 ranging from 27.2% -2%. Top of
the list were parents concerns about students academic performance, progress and success
27.2%, curriculum variety, availability and quality of instructions 11%, student
discipline, 9.5%, school and child security, safety and protection, 9.5%, and students
attitudes and interest about schoolwork ·8.8%. Also of interest were parents concerns
about the need for counseling on career and responsible student behaviors, economic
difficulties in meeting students financial needs.
101
Parents were asked what they would like schools to do to help them with their
child. Top among the things parents want schools to do to help them with their child were
for schools to improve students performance by assigning and checking homework,
offering extra classes, tutoring and improved teacher attendance, (24%), financial
assistance through reduction or keeping school fees constant (13.4%), curriculum
expansion by adding more subjects, making computer studies compulsory for all
students, and the addition of sixth forms or community colleges to schools, for students
who cannot find jobs after high school, and would like to continue studying (10%),
counseling (.2%).
Parents were also asked to say what they could do to help the school. Top among
the groups of things parents said they could do for the school were, to show more interest
and become actively involved in P.T.A. association, 36.5%, Volunteer time, skills and
services to improve school plant and help teachers, 14.6%, be available to help in
whatever way schools want, 11 .3%and to form active parent groups to develop school,
parent, community link to encourage other parents, improve student discipline, encourage
and help teachers and students, 9.3%.
Responses to open ended questions clearly indicate that parents know what they
want for their children. They recognize that schools need their support in providing these
needs and that they must be willing to cooperate and collaborate with the school to
achieve these. It is clear that parents expect the schools to take the lead arid tell them how
they want them to be involved. Parents recognize that student academic and social growth
is linked or affected by other factors such as good discipline, friendly, safe environment
102
conducive to learning and their involvement in the process of providing these conditions
and helping students to achieve
Objective 4. To determine whether there are sign ificant differences between
parent education level, parent attitude, parent involvement and parent assistance with
homework.
There were significant differences at the .05 and .01 levels between parental
education levels and the following attitude statements: "High school teachers show
interest in my child" Parents with All Age School education were significantly different
from parents with High school education
On the attitude item, "High school does not offer much variety in activities for
parents" parents with a Post Secondary education scored higher than parents with High
School education or parents with All Age School education. On the attitude item, "Parent
should take classes in parent education" a difference was found significant at the .01
level. It was found that participants who felt that this was necessary were more likely to
be parents with All Age School education, than parents with Post Secondary education.
There was one significant difference on parent involvement behavior at the .05
level, "Talked with my child about how important school is." Parents with Post
Secondary education were more likely to talk to their children about the importance of
school than parents with High School education or All Age School education.
The study also found significant differences in "How much time parents spent
helping their child with homework"(F=4.466). This was significant at the .05 level which
seems to indicate that parents with Post Secondary education spent more time helping
their child with homework than parents with High School education or parents with All
103
Age School education. "How is your child doing at school"(F=3.22 1), was also
significant at the .05 level. This indicated that the children of parents with Post Secondary
education were doing better than children whose parents had High School education or
children whose parents had All Age School education. Thus, the educational levels of
parents influenced their attitudes about school, the type and level of involvement in the
education of their high school children, the amount of assistance parents give with
homework, and how well students perform academically at school.
Conclusion
Conclusion of this study is generalized to parents with children in High schools in
St. Catherine, Jamaica. Parents had positive attitudes about the high schools their children
attend, however, parents had concerns about how the schools involved them in the
education of their children. There are things that parents would like the school to involve
them in that are not presently being done by schools and there are involvement practices
that parents are willing to become active in. Parents recognize that they need to do more
despite the many problems they experience in getting involved. Parents would like more
involvement in volunteering, and decision-making at school and expect schools to take
the lead in involving them since a large percentage of them indicated that they were
willing to do whatever the school require of them. The educational levels of parents
influence their attitudes about school, the type and level of involvement in the education
of their high school children, the amount of assistance parents give with homework and
how well students perform academically at school.
104
Educational Ilmplications
This study has implications for education at the high school level in Jamaica. It is
well established that good parent involvement programs improve schools; good schools
produce socially and academically progressive students, who will improve families,
communities and the nation. Therefore, high schools administrators and teachers need to
include parent involvement into their School Development Plan and afford it the same
level of importance as other factors vital for the effective schools. High schools need to
have special action plans and organizing committees to organize parent involvement
activities. These Action committees need to audit schools and communities in which the
schools exist to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to parent
involvement programs. They need to identify persons who are capable, knowledgeable,
and willing to serve, identifyr programs that are already in existence and determine where
these need to be strengthened and where new programs are needed.
Schools need to develop is service training programs to educate administrators,
teachers and other school personnel such as Guidance Counselors and School Nurses,
*about parents attitudes, interests, needs, and how to plan programs to get parents
involved. Schools also need to work closely with the community to improve the level of
involvement both in what the community can do for the school and what the school can
do to develop the community.
Educators need to plan and implement parent involvement programs in teacher
* training so that teachers will be more prepared to work with parents. If teachers are
trained to work with parents at all levels of the education system the task of getting
parents involved or sustaining involvement at the high school level will be much easier.
105
Recommendations for Future Research
Studies should continue to investigate parent involvement at the high school
level. The following recommendations are suggested.
1. Identify, parent involvement attitudes and practices in high school in
other parishes in Jamaica.
2. Determine the attitudes of teachers towards involving parents in
curriculum decisions and classroom activities.
3. Determine the attitudes of high school students towards the involvement
of their parents in their education.
4. Determine where parent involvement is most effective at the time of
transition from Primary to High school.
5. Identify the affitude of the Ministry of Education and the Joint Board
of Teacher Education towards compulsory courses and
certification of all teachers in Parent/Involvement Education.
106
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Appendix
111
SURVEY OF PARENTS WITH CHILDRENIN JAMAICAN HIGH SCHOOLS
The person who has the MOST CONTACT with the school about their child should answer these questions.
Name of high school that your child attends____________________________
PART 1: DEMOGRAPHICS
Directions: Please place a (./) CHECK MARK in the blankthat best represents your response to the questions.
1. Who is answering the questions?___a. Mother ___e. Grandparent___b. Father ___f. Guardian___c. Stepmother .... g;. Other relative___d. Stepfather ___h. Other________________________
2. How many children do you have attending this high school?1 child 2 children 3 children 4 children
3. What grades are they in? (Check all that apply)___Grade 7 ___Grade 9 ___Grade 11___Grade 8 ___GradelO ___ 6th Form
4. How old are you?20 -30 years 41 -50 years31 - 40 years 51 or older
5. Have you attended any parenting classes on how to understand and care for your children?____Yes
If yes, please describe________________________________________No
6, What is your highest level of EducationP___a. All Age School ___d. Vocational school graduate___b. High school graduate ____e. College graduate____c. Some College training, ___f. university degree
Part 2. ATTITUDES
Directions: Please CIRCLE the choice that best represents the extent to which you agree or disagree with thefollowing statements.SD~strongly disagree D= disagree U~ undecided A~agree SA~strongly agree
1. The high school my child attends is very good. SD D UASA2. High school teachers show interest in my child SD D U A SA3.1 feel welcome at the high school mny child attend. SD D U A SA4. This high school has an active P.T.A. SD D UASA5. High school teachers should give more homework. SD D U A SA
112
SD=strongly disagree D=disagree U=undecided A=agree SA=strongly agree
6. I could help my child with schoolwork if the teacher gave me more guidance. SD D U A SA7. The community supports fund-raising activities at this high school. SD D U A SA8. This high school does not offer much variety in school activities for parents. SD D U A SA9. My child likes attending this high school. SDD U ASA10. The school does not get much help from community members. SD D U A SA
Ii1. I know many parents who help out at this high school. SD D U A SA12. My child is not learning much at this high school. SD D Ul A SA13. This high school is good at trying new programs to get parents involved. SD D U A SA14 This high school is one of the best for parents and students. SD D U A SA15. Parents should take classes in parent education. SD D U A SA
16. Most parents do not get a chance to talk to all the high school teachers whoteach their children. s DD A SA
17. This school views parents as important partners in children's education. SD D U A SA18. Parents are more involved at school when children are in lower grades. SD D U A SA19.1I talk with teachers when I am concerned about my child's achievement. SD D U A SA20. Principals and teachers are always available to discuss my child's progress
with me. SDD U ASA
Part 3. SCHOOL INVOLVEMENT
Circle one choice to tell how well the school did the following last yearN=School never did C= School should do better D= School did well
This oast year the school has
1 helped me understand my child's development. N C D2. told me how my child is doing. NC D3. told me what skills my child need# to learn. N C D4. had a meeting with me about my child. NC D5. showed me how to check my child's homework. N C D
6. sent me letters about school activities. NC D7. explained how grades are earned. NC D8. contacted me when my child is doing well. N C D9. contacted me when my child is having problems. N C D10. asked me to help at school. N CD
11. included parents on budget or curriculum committees N C D12. informed me about community agencies that help children and families. N C D
13. What improvements would you like to see at this school? CHECK ALL THAT APPLYI would like to scc improvement in
____a. attendance at P.T.A.____b. parents volunteering.____c. parent communication wvith teachers about children's problems.____d. the amount of time between notices and parent involvement activities.____e. the guidance given to parents by teachers on how to help children with homework.____f. School facilities where parents can obtain help or volunteer.____g. the amount of time made available to parents to talk to teachers or principal about
their child____h. the school's efforts to contact me when my child is doing well or need extra help.____i. the way school involves parents in important decisions like budgeting or curriculum.
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Part 4. PARENT INVOLVEMENT
Which of the following did you do at home, school or in the community last year?N--never O=once F= few times M=many times CIRCLE ONE choice for each item
HOME1. Talked to my high school child about school N OF M2. Helped my child with homework N OF M3. Helped my child in planning how to manage time N 0 F M4. Checked to see if my child has done homework N OF M5. Talked with my child about how important school is N 0 F M6. Talked to my child about the future, career and work N 0 F M
SCHOOL7. Talked to my child's Form Teacher in person or by telephone N 0 F M8. Attended P.T.A. meeting N OF M9. Attended special events at my child's school N OF M
COMMUNITY10. Accompanied my child to the library N O F M11. Attended a community event with my child N OF M
12. ABOUT HOMEWORKa .How much time does your child spend doing homewiork on school days?
____none ____ 1-2 hours____30 minutes ___ 3-4 hours
b. How much time do you spend helping your child?____none ____1-2 hours____less than 1 hour ____3-4 hours
c. How much time would you spend if teacher showed you how to help? ________
d. Do you have time to help on weekends?____Yes ____No
13. ABOUT YOUR CHILDHow is your child doing in school?
____a. Top student ____c. Average ____e. Poor____b. Good ____d. Fair
14. How often does your high school child complete homework?_____ a Away _____c. Sometimes ____e. Never
____b. Most of the time ____d. Rarely
15. What subjects would you like to learn more about in order to help your child?CHECK ALL that apply
____a. Agriculture ____e. Home Economics ____i. Science____b. Business Subjects ____f. Industrial Education ____j. Social Studies____c. Computer Science ____g. Math ____k. Study Skills____d. English Language ____h. Resource and Technology ____ . Other________
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16. What topics would you like to learn more about at parent workshops? CHECK all that apply.____a. How adolescents decelop ____e. Raising children as single parents____b. How teens behave ____f. Helping children to study and take tests.____c. How to discipline teens ____g. Understanding high school____d. How to help students choose careers h. Other topics you need________
17. What services in the community would you like to learn more about so you can help your highschool child? CHECK ALL THAT APPLY
____a. Health care for teens and families. e. Parenting classes____b. Family counsreling ____f. Alter school tutoring____c. Job training for parents and teens ____g. After school clubs or skills training.____d. Community service teens can do ____h. Other____________
18. What is your greatest concern as a parent, about what is happening with your child at school?
19. What is the best thing that this high school could do next year to help you with your child?
20. What is one thing that you could do to help this high school?
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP.
